Sheldon Silver

Sheldon Silver
Silver in 2011
119th Speaker of the New York State Assembly
In office February 11, 1994 – February 2, 2015
Governor	George Pataki Eliot Spitzer David Paterson Andrew Cuomo
Preceded by	Saul Weprin
Succeeded by	Carl Heastie
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 65th district
In office January 1, 2013 – November 30, 2015
Preceded by	Micah Kellner
Succeeded by	Alice Cancel
Constituency	Lower Manhattan, New York City
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 64th district
In office January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2012
Preceded by	Richard N. Gottfried
Succeeded by	Nicole Malliotakis
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 62nd district
In office January 1, 1983 – December 31, 2002
Preceded by	Paul M. Viggiano
Succeeded by	Robert Straniere
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 63rd district
In office January 1, 1977 – December 31, 1982
Preceded by	Anthony G. DiFalco
Succeeded by	Steven Sanders
Personal details
Born	(1944-02-13)February 13, 1944 Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Died	January 24, 2022(2022-01-24) (aged 77) Ayer, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Rosa Mandelkern
Alma mater	Yeshiva University (BA) Brooklyn Law School (JD)
Signature
Website	Archived Assembly website

Sheldon Silver (February 13, 1944 – January 24, 2022) was an American Democratic Party politician and attorney from New York City who served as speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1994 to 2015. A native of Manhattan's Lower East Side, Silver served in the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 2015. In 1994, he was selected as the Speaker of the Assembly; he held that position for two decades. During this period, Silver was known as one of the most powerful politicians in the state.

Silver was arrested on federal corruption charges in early 2015, and resigned as Speaker of the Assembly shortly afterward. At his trial that November, he was convicted of all charges; the felony convictions triggered his automatic expulsion from the Assembly. Silver's conviction was overturned on appeal, but in May 2018, following a retrial, he was found guilty on the same charges. After another appeal, the Second Circuit Court dismissed the guilty verdicts for three of the charges, but upheld them for four others. Silver was resentenced in July 2020 to 6+1⁄2 years in prison and a $1 million fine. He was incarcerated in the federal prison at Otisville, New York. Silver was released on May 4, 2021, under a provision of the CARES Act, which allows prison bureaus to release those deemed vulnerable to COVID-19, but was recalled to a medical-care specialized federal prison at Devens, Massachusetts two days later on May 6. He died at a hospital in nearby Ayer, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2022, while still serving his sentence.^[1]