Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been sentenced to 28 years in federal prison for extortion, racketeering, and other federal crimes.
Detroit U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says the lengthy sentence sends "a powerful message."
"I hope that this will empower people, when they are victimized by those kinds of extortion schemes to come forward to the authorities," she says. "This pay-to-play culture is over in Detroit."
Kilpatrick said he "accepted responsibility" for his crimes, but that he never "stole" from the city of Detroit.
Lawyer Norman Yatooma has spent years, unsuccessfully, trying to connect Kilpatrick to the 2003 death of a woman who worked as a stripper. Yatooma says every time he'd seen Kilpatrick in court before, he'd been "cocky and indignant."
"And today, he was broken," Yatooma said of Kilpatrick Thursday.
Kilpatrick's lawyers are expected to appeal his conviction and sentence.
