Keller @ Large: Is 12 Years Too Harsh A Penalty For DiMasi?

BOSTON (CBS) – Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to send Sal DiMasi to prison for more than a dozen years. The former House Speaker was convicted in June of extortion and conspiracy for taking kickbacks to help a software firm win state contracts.

It would be the most severe federal sentence ever imposed on a Massachusetts politician, and in their recommendation to Judge Richard Wolf, the Feds say it's nothing less than what DiMasi deserves for using his power to violate his public trust. But not everyone agrees.

In a scathing filing late Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz lowered the boom on DiMasi, calling on the court to promote respect for the law, provide just punishment, and deter others with a 151 month sentence.

WBZ-TV's Jon Keller Is At Large

To former DiMasi colleagues like Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, it's a sobering moment.

"It's a very serious offense involving a breach of the public trust, a matter in which the jury found a guilty verdict."

To attorney and civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate, the "honest services" statute used by the Feds to charge DiMasi is vague enough to cast doubt on his conviction, even though the Speaker engaged in seriously-corrupt behavior.

He says, "it's an incredibly harsh sentence, and its really grandstanding on the part of the Feds."

"It deserved a response. He should have been kicked out of office at the next election. It is a violation of the public trust, it is not a federal felony, and we don't put people in prison in this country for doing things that are tawdry."

If the judge gives the feds what they want, the 66-year-old DiMasi will be locked up well into his seventies.