This Wednesday, February 4th, the man who tried to shoot Donald Trump on a golf course in Florida, in 2024, was sentenced to life in prison.
District Judge Aileen Cannon announced Ryan Routh’s sentence in the same Fort Pierce courtroom where the suspect attempted to stab himself in September shortly after he was found guilty on all charges by a jury.
The prosecution had asked for life in prison without the possibility of parole, claiming that Routh showed no remorse and had never apologized. On the other hand, the defense asked for 27 years, claiming that Routh is already close to turning 60 years old.
Routh was also sentenced to a consecutive seven-year sentence for illegal possession of a weapon.
Routh’s sentencing was initially scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to delay it after Routh decided to hire an attorney during the sentencing phase rather than represent himself, as he did during most of the trial.
In the sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Routh has not yet accepted any responsibility and should spend the rest of his life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, having been convicted of attempted murder of a prominent presidential candidate, use of a firearm in the commission of a crime, assault on a federal agent, illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and use of a gun with a tampered serial number.
Routh’s new defense attorney, Martin L. Roth, requested a change to the sentencing guidelines: 20 years in prison, plus a mandatory seven-year sentence for one of the gun convictions.
“The defendant is two weeks away from turning 60. A just punishment would be a sentence long enough to impose adequate but not excessive punishment and allow the defendant to once again experience freedom rather than die in prison,” Roth wrote in a document.
According to prosecutors, Routh spent weeks planning to kill Trump before pointing a rifle at him through bushes while the then-Republican presidential candidate played golf on September 15, 2024, at his country club in West Palm Beach.
At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent who helped protect Trump at the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump showed up. Routh pointed his shotgun at the agent, who in turn opened fire, causing Routh to drop the weapon and flee without firing a single shot.
In the application requesting a lawyer, the suspect offered his own life in a prisoner exchange with people unjustly detained in other countries and said that the offer was still standing for Trump to “take out his frustrations” in his face.
Cannon last summer approved Routh’s request to represent himself at trial. The US Supreme Court has ruled that defendants in criminal cases have the right to represent themselves at trial, as long as they demonstrate to the judge that they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney.
Routh’s former federal public defenders served as supporting attorneys and were present during the trial.
Routh had several previous convictions for serious crimes, including possession of stolen property, and a large online presence demonstrating his contempt for Trump. In a self-published book, he encouraged Iran to assassinate the current president of the United States and, at one point, wrote that, as a Trump voter, he should take part of the blame for having elected him.
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