How Diddy Could Still End Up With a Long Sentence, Despite The Acquittals

Diddy shouldn’t plan that freak-off just yet. He should keep the baby oil in the medicine cabinet.

Acquittals on the RICO and sex trafficking charges Wednesday means life in prison is off the table. But the man who was once a dominant figure in the music industry could still end up with a big stretch in the big house.

Diddy was convicted of a pair of violations of the Mann Act, a federal law that prohibits the transportation of an individual across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or other illegal sex acts. Each conviction exposes Diddy to a 10-year sentence, meaning he could get a 20-year term if the judge who oversaw his trial decides to impose the maximum and orders that those sentences run consecutively.

That’s not likely. Not at all. But Diddy has a couple significant factors working against him as he hopes for a short sentence and an eventual return to the mogul life.

First, he’s a Black man. And the criminal justice system doesn’t often offer up breaks to brothers, though having a gigantic bank account and a stable of talented lawyers does even the scales a bit. 

Secondly, the judge in Diddy’s case, U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian, saw that video of Diddy brutalizing Cassie in 2016. Like the rest of us, he saw Diddy shoving her around. He saw Diddy kick her as she cowered on the floor. He saw Diddy drag her.

Yeah, Cassie got a $20 million settlement. But that’s no guarantee Subramanian won’t open up a sentencing can of whoop ass on Diddy. The judge could determine, privately, that Diddy has not faced meaningful consequences for the violence against his former girlfriend. He could impose a sentence of, say, seven years on each count, decree that they run concurrently and still be well short of the 20-year stretch he could have handed down.

With a seven-year sentence, Diddy would be looking at serving six years if he’s a model prisoner, given that federal inmates generally must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. By the time the sentence is handed down this fall, Diddy would have served about a year at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. 

Even with credit for time served, Diddy, 55, wouldn’t be free to break out the baby oil until 2031. He’d have more use for Bengay than baby oil at that point.

Think that’s a crazy scenario? Think again. 

Diddy’s legal team is hoping for a sentence as short as 21 months, which would cut him loose late next year with credit for time served. The prosecution, however, is looking for a sentence of as long as 63 months - five years and three months.

A disgusted Subramanian could go rogue and hit Diddy much harder. There’s plenty of precedent for that, with perhaps the most notable instance of a crazy, stunningly long sentence being the 33-year term doled out to O.J. Simpson when he was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping in 2007. (Simpson served the minimum of nine years before his release, but even that was a much longer term than many thought was warranted.)

In 1995, O.J. had famously been acquitted of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Many people, including many white Americans, felt O.J. should have been convicted of those murders. They felt a great measure of satisfaction at seeing O.J. locked away for a long time in that armed robbery case.

Subramanian could decide those Mann Act convictions are all he needs to give Diddy a little of that O.J. treatment. If he does, baby oil won’t just be a party favor for Diddy; it will be a necessity.