Detroit’s Ex-Mayor Sentenced to 28 Years for Corruption

Prosecutors asked Edmunds to sentence Kilpatrick to at least 28 years, saying he “systematically exploited his office to enrich himself, his friends and his family.” The U.S alleged that his conduct worsened Detroit’s fiscal woes a half-decade before it filed its record $18 billion municipal bankruptcy in July.

“Kilpatrick is not the main culprit of the city’s historic bankruptcy, which is the result of larger social and economic forces at work for decades,” prosecutors said in an Oct. 3 court filing. “But his corrupt administration exacerbated the crisis.”

Kilpatrick, who has been held in federal prison in Milan, Michigan, since his conviction, resigned in September 2008 after pleading guilty to two state felony counts of obstruction of justice for lying on the witness stand in an unrelated case.

Isn't that an unusually harsh sentence for a politician who got rich at taxpayer expense in this day and age?