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NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver on Friday begged for mercy at his sentencing next week on corruption charges, telling a judge that he is filled with shame and prays he will not die in prison.
The 74-year-old Democrat submitted a letter in Manhattan federal court, saying he and his wife "are both crumbling" after he was convicted in May at a retrial on corruption charges. He said he hardly sleeps and thinks of nothing except his criminal case.
"I pray I will not die in prison," he told U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni. He called himself "broken-hearted" that he damaged the trust people have in government.
Prosecutors, in their own submission Friday, sought a sentence of well over 10 years in prison, saying they had proven that Silver "repeatedly corrupted the great power of his office for personal profit and caused incalculable damage to the public trust."
Silver's lawyers urged Caproni to impose less than a decade in prison with significant community service to follow. They said Silver does not admit that his conduct was criminal, though he is remorseful.
Silver faces sentencing July 27 after a jury concluded he was guilty of earning nearly $4 million illegally by collecting fees from a cancer researcher and real estate developers. Prosecutors said Silver earned another $1 million by investing the money.
Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a 2015 conviction at trial. That conviction was overturned by a federal appeals court following a Supreme Court decision that redefined what constituted corruption.
First elected in 1976, Silver served as speaker for 21 years, resigning after his 2015 arrest.
"The work that has been the focus of most of my life has become dirty and shameful," Silver said in his letter. "Everything I ever accomplished has become a joke and a spectacle. ... I beg for your mercy so that I can somehow go out into the world again to atone to everyone I have hurt."
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