(AP) - A jury has convicted former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver of public corruption charges, dashing the 74-year-old Democrat's second attempt to avoid prison after a decades-long career as one of the most powerful politicians in state government.
  
The verdict Friday came more than two years after his first 2015 trial resulted in a 12-year prison sentence.
  
An appeals court tossed out that conviction, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling that changed the legal boundaries for public corruption.
  
Prosecutors said Silver illegally earned $4 million from a cancer researcher and real estate developers who benefited from his clout in state government.
  
Defense lawyers countered that his fees were "perfectly legal."