By Milton J. Valencia, Shelley Murphy and John R. Ellement Globe Staff

The lawyer for Catherine Greig has asked that she serve no more than 27 months in federal prison for harboring James “Whitey” Bulger during his years on the run, saying her only crime was falling in love with the notorious gangster.

“Why people fall in love has been debated since before Shakespeare’s sonnets,’’ attorney Kevin Reddington wrote in a 12-page sentencing recommendation filed today in US District Court. “The truth of the matter is that she was and remained in love with Mr. Bulger.’’

Reddington also criticized the families of Bulger’s alleged murder victims and asked a judge that they be prevented from speaking at her sentencing hearing. He suggested that their incessant campaign against the woman they call “evil” had driven prosecutors to ask for the strict, 10-year sentence they have proposed.

Bulger, a former member of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, was captured last year in Santa Monica, Calif., along with Greig. The two had been on the lam for 16 years. In March, Greig pleaded guilty to charges that she helped Bulger remain at large.

Probation officials have calculated that Greig, 61, should serve a sentence of 27 to 33 months, based on federal sentencing guidelines. She also faces a maximum fine of $250,000 for each of her three convictions: conspiracy to harbor a fugitive, conspiracy to commit identity fraud, and identity fraud.

She is to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday by US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock.

Tom Donahue, whose father, Michael, was allegedly murdered by Bulger in 1982, said the defense’s 27-month sentence recommendation was “absurd.”