Imprisoned former New York Speaker Sheldon Silver dies at 77

Sheldon Silver, who served as the speaker of the New York State Assembly for over 20 years and was sent to prison following a conviction on corruption charges, died Monday at the age of 77.

The Democrat died at the Nashoba Valley Medical Center near the federal prison facility in Massachusetts where he was incarcerated, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told the New York Times. A cause of death was not immediately known, but Silver had a known history of cancer and kidney disease.