New York – Reacting to a Supreme Court ruling, two former top New York State legislators convicted of public corruption crimes are urging judges to let them remain free pending appeal.
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Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (SKEH’-lohs) made the requests in Manhattan federal court on Monday.
Silver, a Democrat, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was convicted last year in a $5 million corruption case.
Skelos, a Republican, and his son, Adam, were convicted last year of extortion and bribery. Skelos was sentenced to five years in prison while his son received a 6 ½-year sentence.
They maintained that their prospects on appeal improved considerably after the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of former Virginia Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell.
They are right. Shelly, did not have any quid pro quo and is legally completely innocent. So why was he convicted you may ask. The answer is that jurors are not that knowledgeable in the law. Jurors will vote with emotion. In shelly’s case the man was very morally corrupt. Once the prosecutor paints him as morally corrupt, its very hard to just cold bloodly look at the letter of the law. So jurors vote with conscience. And if you remember there was one hung juror who was not sure if Shelly broke the law. But he .was forced to vote his conscience.
He needs to see his lady friends one last time. Nebach
sadly the judicial system and the way jurors are chosen needs a revamping. people who are nearly illiterate and have difficulty understanding some of the ”big” words can still sit on a jury and not quite understand many of the points made by a judge and/or attorneys.
I am not saying there should be remedial classes to review what was stated in court each day but something needs to be clarified some times.
personally, I sat on a case years ago where a woman visiting from brazil was suing a place that she fell in. she did not understand a single word in English and a translator was provided for her to understand when she was asked questions. she did not know anything else that was going on.
he is as guilty as they come, #1 just bec. you may have benefitted from knowing this corrupt, toeiva living, yeshiva tuition parent hating POLITICIAN doesn’t make him clean, ever heard of lo tikach shohad?