Federal appeals court partially overturns conviction of ex-New York assembly speaker Sheldon Silver News
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Federal appeals court partially overturns conviction of ex-New York assembly speaker Sheldon Silver

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday partially overturned former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver’s conviction for corruption.

Silver appealed on erroneous jury instructions with regards to three of the counts. The court agreed and reversed on those three counts but affirmed on the other four counts of corruption.

In addition to the jury instructions being incorrect, the court said, “we conclude that the evidence as to the same three counts was insufficient as a matter of law to sustain a guilty verdict, we remand with directions for the district court to dismiss the indictment with prejudice as to them.” In other words, he cannot be retried for these counts because of a lack of evidence.