Ailing mobster Peter Gotti believes he’s on death’s door, his lawyer has said, as he made the sixth appeal for the 80-year-old’s release in just one month.
With 12 years left of a 25-year sentence, Gotti ‘is increasingly difficult to understand on the phone’ and ‘his voice is weak, labored and very faint’ according to the Tuesday filing which mentioned death rates at Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina are at an ‘all-time high’.
‘We pray Peter Gotti won’t be next on that list, but these cases are very sad and very real,’ James Craven wrote in the court papers which claimed doctors believed Gotti should be allowed home.
‘Peter Gotti has a loving home to go too, with his daughter in Howard Beach, New York. He has served over 80 percent of his sentence and is dying. May he get there in time.’
Peter Gotti (pictured 2002) ‘is increasingly difficult to understand on the phone’ and ‘his voice is weak, labored and very faint’, according to his lawyer
Peter Gotti’s lawyer said in a Tuesday request for compassionate release that Butner Federal Medical Center, North Carolina death rates are at ‘all-time high’
Craven added: ‘We are truly afraid he is dying now, he feels he is. As his lawyer, I am afraid this will all become moot soon if nothing is done.’
The appeals have ramped up since November 4, the New York Daily News reported, but he’s not scheduled to be released until 2032.
In a document filed November 27, Gotti’s lawyer said he ‘becomes extremely out of breath just from walking several steps’.
Last week Craven claimed in a filing: ‘At times he seems not to know whether he is in North Carolina or New York. Who knows how much time his heart has left?
‘He is not a young 80 at all and we all worry that he may simply not wake up some morning soon. Any number of health issues could kill him, but his heart condition is the most worrisome.’
‘We are truly afraid he is dying now, he feels he is,’ the lawyer said as he asked for Gotti (left) to be allowed to pass away at his daughter’s New York home. Gotti was jailed shortly after he took over the Gambino family from his dying brother John (right) back in 2002
Gotti was convicted on two racketeering indictments 17 years ago and his legal team appealed for his release in June, claiming he had ‘early onset dementia’.
The request for compassionate release was denied in September.
Federal authorities said he still posed a ‘substantial danger to the community’ despite his age medical issues including an enlarged prostate and gastric reflux.
Prosecutors filed a letter in Manhattan urging a judge to reject that argument.
‘Notwithstanding his age and health, Gotti poses a substantial danger to the community,’ the letter, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jun Xiang, said.
‘Gotti argues that he is incapable of his violence due to his age and medical condition.
‘The danger posed by a Gambino Family leader like Gotti is not that he will personally engage in acts of violence, but that he can command others to do so.’
Gotti was jailed shortly after he took over the Gambino family from his dying brother John back in 2002.
Lawyers wrote last month that Peter (right, with late brother John left) ‘becomes extremely out of breath just from walking several steps’ and ‘any number of health issues could kill him’
He filed a seven-page motion in July requesting that he be released early and allowed to return to his daughter’s home in Queens via compassionate release from prison under the First Step Act of 2018.
In his request, he said he wants ‘to help others not make the life mistakes he made’.
‘Being incarcerated now for 17 years plus has caused him to reevaluate his thinking and reconsider his moral values,’ his attorney Craven wrote.
‘No longer does he try to justify his actions or defend the choices he made that brought him to prison.’
His attorney added that Gotti does not in ‘any way deny his guilt or responsibility’ but ‘wants now to tell anyone who will listen that there is truly zero benefit to unlawful activity.
‘He has hurt other people, including family members, and he wants to spend the balance of his life making amends as best he can.’
‘He is very seriously ill and clearly on an end of life trajectory and in a debilitated medical condition,’ he said.
‘The health of his heart and lungs has deteriorated markedly in recent years.
‘Compassionate release now would in no way minimize the severity of his offense, nor endanger anyone or anything.’
Peter’s shift in attitude is a marked difference from his brothers John and Gene – the former would deny being part of any crime and the latter was recently released after spending 29 years in prison for dealing heroin and refused to leave prison even a day earlier than his sentence.
His nephew Junior, who is John’s son, publicly denied being a part of the mob in 2005.