Ex-CPD cop behind grisly kidnap, torture and murder plot deserves less than 12 years, lawyer says

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

He was caught on camera gleefully joking about the gory details of his plan to abduct, torture, extort and kill a suburban businessman.

But former Chicago cop Steve Mandell should serve less than a dozen years in prison, his lawyer says.

The 64-year-old may have been convicted in one of the grisliest and most lurid federal trials in Chicago’s recent history, but he deserves a “glimmer of hope that he will one day be free at an old age,” his attorney Francis Lipuma argues in a court filing ahead of Mandell’s sentencing next month.

Yet, many Chicago voters think only police should own handguns.