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A federal appeals court in Manhattan on Thursday overturned the 2015 corruption conviction of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, but prosecutors quickly signaled that they would seek to retry the case against the once powerful Albany power broker.
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that there was sufficient evidence to convict the veteran legislator in two corruption schemes, but jury instructions didn’t comply with a new Supreme Court decision narrowing the scope of the type of act a public official had to engage in to be guilty in a quid pro quo bribery scheme.
“This error was not harmless because it is not clear beyond a reasonable doubt that a rational jury would have reached the same conclusion if properly instructed, as is required by law for the verdict to stand,” the unanimous three-judge panel ruled.
Silver, 73, was convicted in 2015 of “honest services fraud” and other charges for helping real estate developers and a cancer researcher who funneled legal business to him. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but it was stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.
The conviction was one of the signature victories of former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s campaign at public corruption, but the outcome was known to be in doubt because of the Supreme Court’s decision in a case involving former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, which followed Silver’s trial.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said he was confident the outcome would be the same at a planned retrial in which the jury gets correct instructions.
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“Although this decision puts on hold the justice that New Yorkers got upon Silver’s conviction, we look forward to presenting to another jury the evidence of decades-long corruption,” Kim said. “Although it will be delayed, we do not expect justice to be denied.”
Silver lawyers Steve Molo and Joel Cohen, in a brief statement, said, “We are grateful the court saw it our way and reversed the conviction on all counts.”