Remember Sheldon Silver, former speaker of the New York State Assembly, convicted on corruption charges in 2015? (Previously on WCD.)
His conviction has been overturned. And not for the reason I was afraid it would be overturned (jury issues):
Mr. Silver was convicted on charges that he had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments in return for taking a series of official actions that benefited others. But in the jury instructions, the judge’s explanation of an official action was too broad, the appeals court found, because it swept in some conduct that the Supreme Court’s decision would now exclude.
…
The panel cited the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision involving Bob McDonnell, a former Republican governor of Virginia, that came seven months after Mr. Silver was convicted. Mr. McDonnell had arranged meetings for and attended events with a benefactor who had provided the governor and his wife with gifts worth more than $175,000. The Supreme Court ruled that official action must involve formal and concrete government actions or decisions, like holding a hearing or filing a lawsuit, and not routine political courtesies.
(I’ve also touched very briefly on the McDonnell decision before.)
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