Sheldon Silver, the former Manhattan lawmaker and Assembly speaker who rose to become one of the most powerful people in New York state only to fall to a scandal of his own making, died in federal prison on Monday at the age of 77, according to reports.
Federal records indicated that Silver was incarcerated at the time of his death at the FMC Devens, a minimum-security federal prison hospital in Massachusetts. The disgraced former lawmaker was serving a 6 1/2 year prison sentence after being convicted on federal corruption charges.
