T.I. Pleads Guilty To Gun Charges
(March 27th)

T.I., whose real name in Clifford Harris Jr., faced a minimum of 4 years 9 months behind bars after he was caught last fall buying machine guns and silencers in an undercover sting. But if T.I. abides by his extraordinary plea agreement, he will spend less than a year in prison.

Before he surrenders to begin serving time, he must perform at least 1,000 hours of community service telling kids about the pitfalls of crime, drugs and gangs and encouraging them to respect the law.

The details of Harris' plea deal were outlined Thursday during an hour long hearing in which he pleaded guilty to two charges of illegally possessing firearms and another for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

Harris, 27, wearing a gray suit, was smiling as he walked up to a bank of microphones outside the federal courthouse after his plea. He vowed to dedicate himself to changing the lives of young people.

"I'm not looking forward to being incarcerated," Harris said. "I have a long road of redemption to travel. ... I realize completely I violated the law, and I take it very seriously."

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell Jr. scheduled Harris' sentencing for March 27, 2009. If the musician abides by the conditions of his plea agreement, Pannell is bound to impose a prison sentence of one year plus one day.

He is expected to serve less than a year, however. Because of a quirk in Bureau of Prisons rules, inmates get credit for good behavior — and can carve off 15 percent of their incarcerations — only if they are sentenced to more than a year.

The agreement also says that if Harris does not abide by the conditions in his plea and no longer accepts responsibility for his actions, Pannell can slam him with a sentence of more than 8 years in prison.

Harris also was fined $100,000 and sentenced to a year's home confinement. He has been out on $3 million bond, and he will get credit for time spent in home confinement since late October and any time he spends at home in the coming year.

"He can perform, act in movies [and] carry on with his business until the end of the 12-month period," said Ed Garland, one of Harris' six attorneys.

All the while, a private security officer will shadow Harris and report on him if he strays.

Carl Lietz, an Atlanta lawyer and former federal defender, expressed astonishment at the agreement.

"That is an outstanding deal, given what he was facing," Lietz said. "This is a very unusual, and in my experience, unprecedented way to resolve a case involving these allegations."

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias defended the deal, saying preventing crime is a paramount objective.

"If Mr. Harris performs as expected, his efforts and ability to reach and influence a large number of young people should prevent and deter at least some of them from committing crimes that endanger their communities and ruin their lives," Nahmias said.

Steve Sadow, another one of Harris' attorneys, called the agreement "fair and reasonable. ... T.I. knows he's getting a second chance here, and he's going to make the most of it."