DETROIT — Seven months after his conviction for public corruption, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced Thursday to serve 28 years in federal prison.
“The government has asked for a sentence of 28 years,” said U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds. “I believe that is in fact what his sentence should be.”
Edmunds said the seriousness of Kilpatrick’s crimes are compounded by the involvement of city officials and others. Thirty-four other people have been convicted in connection with the public corruption case. “One thing is certain,” Edmunds said. “It was the citizens of Detroit who suffered.”
Kilpatrick, who was mayor from 2002 through 2008, ran what the government called a money-making racket that steered millions to himself, his family and his friends.
“I’m ready to go so the city can move on,” Kilpatrick told the judge. “The people here are suffering, they’re hurting. A great deal of that hurt I accept responsibility for.”
