Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been sentenced to seven years in prison for public corruption.
 
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni announced the sentence Friday at a court in Manhattan.
 
Silver was once among Albany's most powerful Democrats until he was felled by a corruption scandal.
 
He was initially found guilty in 2015 of pocketing $4 million illegally by collecting fees from a cancer researcher and real estate developer.
 
His conviction and 12-year prison sentence were thrown out by an appeals court, but the 74-year-old fared no better at a second trial in May.
 
In a pre-sentence submission, Silver said he was filled with shame and feared he would die in prison.