Silver so far was - reluctantly - disbarred, and not immediately as of the date of conviction, as required by law.
Silver also kept his pension of $90,750 a year that taxpayers will continue to foot for him - plus medical care for him and his spouse.
Silver, the poor guy, pun intended, was reportedly "struggling" to start paying the fine ordered by the judge out of $7,000,000 that Silver is supposed to return from those monies he was paid for his "services" as a lawmaker over the years.
Silver was sentenced to 12 years in prison - in May of 2016, but has not seen the inside of the prison yet.
Why?
First, he was allowed to stay out of prison during the summer pending his appeal, because judges were expecting (!) a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in a similar case - imagine if a court will do that for any other convicted Joe from the street.
Then, very "coincidentally", just when Silver was convicted, the U.S. Supreme Court - consider the odds - (1) took a case of another corrupt public official (while regularly tossing civil rights cases like garbage unworthy of the high Court's attention), and (2) decided that case in favor of that corrupt official, making it so much more difficult to pursue public corruption in this country.
That's the court that heard 150 cases per year, and in by 2009 it heard half that, 75, while the U.S. resident population in 1980 was reportedly 226,545,805, and was estimated at 308,758,105 in 2010.
So, the population from 1980 to 2010 grew more than 1/3.
Yet, the highest court of the country that takes FINAL appeals from 50 states and 13 federal circuits (63 sources all in all), at the time when the number of court cases increased from 1980 to 2010 even more, percentage wise, than population increased, reduced its "discretionary" intake of cases by 1/2. Sounds like a policy to me.
Of course, judges need time for national and international speaking engagements and write books about the Court's glory, participate in a variety of beneficial activities to enhance the honor of the legal profession, and to go on hunting trips with litigants and their lawyers, although the latter is a hazardous endeavor for U.S. Supreme justices of late.
Oh, and don't forget that Justice Stephen Breyer, for example, spends his valuable time attending "movie nights with booze" in the 9th Circuit with the honorable Alex Kozinski , the judge who likes man-donkey porn, opposes "oversized briefs" on constitutional issues (while courts have no restrictions in the length of their opinions and can dedicate as many pages as is needed to prove their point well) and who tries to publicly exert influence upon cases where he is a party.
Yes, the courthouse is open 24/7 supposedly to hear last-minute death penalty appeals, but that's not fun, is it?
Movie nights with booze in the courthouse and with a U.S. Supreme Court justice attending (to discuss cases?) are more fun - imagine, for Justice Breyer to even find a window in his tight schedule to attend such a booze party, cutting short on national and international speaking tours, wining and dining with the Inn-of-Court lawyers at their expense, writing books, inventing and enforcing "saddle-stitch" rules, dodging the docket of the "griping crackpot" (pro se) cases,
and, of course, doing the most important part of his job, the diligent work for the "chosen 66".
And, while the high court now takes around 70 cases a year out of the entire country, as a matter of its unlimited "discretion", the court also takes in cases from around 70 (66 to be precise) lawyers (9 women and 57 men, no blacks allowed, one Latino and one Hindu squeezed in), of course, with personal connections with the court's judges (former law clerks, colleagues etc.).
A perfect match, isn't it?
Which begs a question - do we even need the U.S. Supreme Court if it continues to be simply a privileged club at taxpayers' expense reviewing - and "setting the law for the country" - only for cases it "wants" to hear from its own friends and acquaintances, a type of judicial misconduct that warranted taking off the bench of a judge in New York in 2013, see Matter of Glen George. Of course, in this country we imprison people for stealing lipstick from Walmart, but not for funneling millions from taxpayers. And, by the same token, we take off the bench a judge fixing traffic tickets for friends, but not providing for livelihood of large corporations.
So, to get in front of the U.S. Supreme Court is a truly miraculous chance - like winning a jackpot in a lottery (if the lottery is rigged).
Remember, the U.S. Supreme Court invented rules, in an electronic age, designed at the same time to flood the court with papers (41 copies of petitions and appendixes are required to be filed for each case instead of one electronic filing) in order to keep the "crackpots with a gripe" from inundating the court, and allows cases only or predominantly from the approved few (66) honorables to be heard.
In sum, you can be assured that your case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court will not be heard, no matter how meritorious or important for your and for this country, unless you have enough money to hire one of "the 66" and unless you are rich enough not to care about the intentionally discriminatory, petty, burdening "saddle-stitch" rules invented by the U.S. Supreme Court in our day and age of electronic filing in order to further reduce the number of people willing or able to present their cases to the High Court.
You, of course, know why such rules are needed.
No, the U.S. Supreme Court certainly does not want "every crackpot with a gripe inundating the court". So, it made the rules reducing access to court based on educational and financial restrictions.
After all, it cost no less than a $1,000 to just print an average-size petition and appendix to it (41 required copies of petition and appendix), and $1,000 is a very low figure. I was quoted much, much more by companies specializing on such printing, from 2 to 5 thousand dollars. For printing. That does not include the filing fee ($300) and the legal fees if you need a lawyer, and most people need a lawyer, unless they are lawyers themselves capable of handling an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Of course, you can apply to court for a waiver of fees ($300), but you will still have to pay for the print - of 41 copies of petitions and appendixes.
And, you will have to "re-typeset" all documents in the appendix (not just provide copies) so that they look uniform, in a Century font - a font that nobody uses, so the high Court can be sure that "the crackpot gripes" will have to re-"typeset" every single document in the file - taking more time, effort and money than most people can afford.
But, you will only get that waiver of fee if you are indigent. If you are not indigent, if you work and make ends meet, you will have to pay all the way through. Or decide not to. And the court will be glad that one more "crackpot gripe" fell off the wagon and will not be inundating the court with his or her nonsense.
With all that background, what are the odds of U.S. Supreme Court "coincidentally" taking an the appeal of a corrupt public official to see whether public corruption can be redefined in order to make it more difficult to prosecute public corruption (a question of utmost public importance nowadays warranting the high Court's immediate attention) - at the very same time as two very public and very corrupt figures, heads of BOTH chambers of New York State Legislature, Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver, were convicted for public corruption?
Even if the High Court took that case for review, what are the odds that any federal court would not send a convicted criminal to prison pending review of a similar case in the U.S. Supreme Court?
And what are the odds that the U.S. Supreme Court would rule so that the conviction of Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos would have a chance to be overturned?
And what are the odds that the federal district court that sentenced Silver to 12 years in prison will keep a convicted criminal out of prison pending appeal where there is a possibility (not certainty) that the conviction will be overturned based on a precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court? You know how many precedents of the same U.S. Supreme Court there are that federal courts do not care a rat's ass about? Let's talk whistleblower's loss of livelihood cases. Let's talk court corruption cases. Let's talk unconstitutional family break-up cases. There are zillions of applicable precedents, parties quote them until they are blue in the face - with no result.
Here - Silver is kept out of jail despite a jury conviction and a 12-year sentence because there is a CHANCE that he will win on appeal because of ONE recent precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court?
And what are the odds that any judge will give a criminal convicted by jury, sentenced to 12 years in prison and to a fine/forfeiture of 7 million dollars, "a little extra time" to pay that 7 million spread by tiny increments well beyond the lifetime of the criminal?
And what are the odds of ALL OF THE ABOVE happening together - without just a little help? Without "a hand laid on the scales of justice", as our criminal procedure professor used to say?
Imagine.
If Silver stole those $7,000,000 (and he likely stole much more) and put it into an investment account, even at a low rate of 3%, he would have a profit of $210,000 per year in interest only.
Silver is 72.
The judge ordered him to start paying out his 7 million dollar fine and forfeiture sentence at the whopping $5,846 a month.
That's $70,152 a year.
Silver's ongoing pension is $90,750.
And, if he stole $7,000,000, his income on that steal is at least $210,000 a year, by conservative estimates.
Silver will have enough money to pay his lawyers and a couple of judges, wouldn't he?
Corruption pays, doesn't it?
So, stop inundating courts with your petitions for justice, my dear average Americans, the griping crackpots.
And stop concerning yourself with Trump v Clinton, and where to run if Trump is elected or if Clinton is elected.
Start thinking business. Like Silver did.
Just get elected, invest your loot well, steal as much as you can, share your steals with whoever will cover your ass, don't get caught until you are old, frail and can beg for mercy because of your pitiful old age - and then beat the odds and live a great long life with your loot laughing at those silly people who must work for a living.
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