An arsonist who got a 15-year prison sentence for a 2010 blaze that injured six Detroit firefighters and paralyzed a seventh could get a lighter sentence because of an error by prosecutors, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
Tresa Baldas and Gina Damron report in the Free Press that the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the 15-year sentence for Samson Wright, 32, after the government admitted to making a sentencing mistake that wound up costing Wright eight more years in prison than his plea deal called for.
Under the terms of Wright’s plea agreement, he faced a maximum 84-month prison sentence but got 150 months instead, triggering an appeal.
“I would say someone owes us an explanation to what happened,” Dan McNamara, president of the Detroit firefighters union said today. “We don’t understand.”
He added: “Our members have life sentences, the ones who got hurt.”
