NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the sentencing hearing for former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (all times local):
4:10
A federal judge who sentenced one of New York’s longtime Democratic power brokers to seven years in prison says political corruption in New York state “has to stop.”
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in Manhattan complained that corruption trials this year had touched directly or indirectly on what until a few years ago were the three most powerful elected public officials in the state.
She sentenced former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to seven years in prison, five fewer than she gave him before his earlier conviction was overturned on appeal.
She noted that the 74-year-old Silver seems to have aged more in the three years since his 2015 arrest than would be expected.
Before he was sentenced, Silver said he expects he’ll continue to be ridiculed and shamed.
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3:10 p.m.
Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been sentenced to seven years in prison for public corruption.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni announced the sentence Friday at a court in Manhattan.
Silver was once among Albany’s most powerful Democrats until he was felled by a corruption scandal.
He was initially found guilty in 2015 of pocketing $4 million illegally by collecting fees from a cancer researcher and real estate developer.
His conviction and 12-year prison sentence were thrown out by an appeals court, but the 74-year-old fared no better at a second trial in May.
In a pre-sentence submission, Silver said he was filled with shame and feared he would die in prison.
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12:08 a.m.
One of the most powerful politicians in New York before corruption charges abruptly ended his career is scheduled to be sentenced for a second time.
The fate of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Friday rests with a judge who ordered him imprisoned for 12 years after his first conviction in 2015. That conviction was tossed out by an appeals court that said his trial must conform with a recent Supreme Court ruling redefining the boundaries of corruption law.
At a second trial this spring, a jury again found him guilty of earning nearly $4 million illegally by collecting fees from a cancer researcher and real estate developers.
Prosecutors say the 74-year-old Democrat should spend well over 10 years in prison. Defense attorneys have argued for far less prison time.
