Frank James' lawyers ask for 18-year sentence in Brooklyn subway shooting

Attorneys for Frank James, the New York City subway shooter who injured 10 people last year, are asking he be sentenced to 18 years in prison.

James, now 64, was "tormented by lifelong paranoid schizophrenia" leading up to the April 2022 attack, his defense attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed this week.

"By the time Frank James boarded the Manhattan-bound N train on April 12, 2022, his entire life had been defined by trauma and hardship, inexplicably bound up in his untreated severe mental illness," his lawyers wrote.

James pleaded guilty to multiple federal terrorism charges in January.

Federal prosecutors have argued James executed "careful and prolonged planning" when, disguised as a maintenance worker, he set off a pair of smoke bombs on board a crowded train car when it was stalled between stations.

What did the New York subway shooter do?

James shot people randomly with a semiautomatic pistol, firing 32 shots before the gun jammed, according to court documents. Afterward, he disembarked the train car, put his orange reflective jacket and hard hat in the trash and blended in with rattled morning commuters. The incident set off a massive, 30-hour manhunt that culminated with James turning himself in at a Manhattan McDonald's.

In addition to 10 people being injured by gunshots, more than a dozen others suffered from smoke inhalation and shrapnel wounds.

Prosecutors asked a judge to sentence James to 10 life sentences, plus 10 years, at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 28.

Shooter's attorneys point to schizophrenia

In court documents filed this week, James' lawyers describe his traumatic childhood and early hospitalizations for schizophrenic episodes. By the time he was 21, James had landed in a jail call on Riker's Island, where he tried to hang himself, according to his lawyers.

For the rest of his life, James sought and received treatment for his severe mental illness, but no treatment was ever successful, his lawyers said in court documents.

Before the shooting, James, who is Black, posted dozens of videos online in which he ranted about race, violence and his struggles with mental illness. In some, he decried the treatment of Black people and talked about how he was so frustrated "I should have gotten a gun and just started shooting." 

Although prosecutors have argued the April 2022 attack was the result of years of planning and preparation, James' attorneys argue, "Mr. James is not evil. He is very, very ill. A just sentence in this case tempers the natural urge for retribution with mercy."

Defense attorneys ask for 18 years

James' attorneys say he should serve 18 years in prison because it's a "significant term that vastly outpaces hislife expectancy," their sentencing memorandum reads. Defense attorneys also point to the fact that James called a police tip line and turned himself in to authorities the day after the mass shooting.

"Given his age, his health, and the Bureau of Prisons’ notoriously inadequate medical care, 64-year-old Frank James will not survive any prison sentence that reflects the harm he caused," his lawyers wrote.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY