The former mayor of Newark broke a yearlong public silence hours before being sentenced for corruption with an attitude rarely, if ever, seen during his 20 years as the leader of the state’s largest city: contrition.

“I would like to apologize to my wife of 44 years and my mother, who is 94, for the hardship and suffering they have had to endure,” Sharpe James told a hushed courtroom on Tuesday.

“I made a mistake. I’m a human being,” he said, without offering specifics.

The statements, especially poignant because the trial exposed details of an affair with a woman about half his age, did not appear to hurt his quest for leniency on convictions involving the sale of city land to her.

James, 72, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine. His one-time mistress, Tamika Riley, 39, was sentenced to 15 months and ordered to repay $27,000 in a housing subsidy.

The penalties from U.S. District Judge William J. Martini, a former federal prosecutor, were far less than the 15- to 20-year range requested by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The judge said the prosecution request “disappoints me and shocks me,” noting that James did not take any bribes, and that recent sentences for elected officials convicted of bribery were seven years or less. Martini said James “has accomplished much in his life,” noting major projects that sprouted in Newark after being championed by the mayor, including a pro hockey arena, office towers and a performing arts center.

U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said he would ask the Justice Department for permission to appeal both sentences, saying he disagreed with the judge’s reasoning.

“I don’t think it makes a difference if you get bribed with money or get bribed with sex,” Christie said.

He said he did not question the sincerity of James’ apology but noted, “I think he’s sorry he got caught.”

Martini ordered James and Riley to surrender by Sept. 15 to prisons that have yet to be assigned. Both are appealing their convictions.

Prosecutors charged that James abused his office and betrayed his constituents by arranging for the sale of nine city-owned properties for $46,000 to Riley from 2001 to 2005. Riley quickly sold them for $665,000 without ever starting required rehabilitation work on most of them, prosecutors said.

The judge determined the city did not lose any money from the sales, but the prosecution contended the sentences should reflect that James gained companionship and that Riley cleared more than $430,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith H. Germano argued that James deserved extra time because of his leadership of the conspiracy and its seven-year duration.

James, a former Democratic state senator, was convicted in April on all five counts he faced, including conspiracy and fraud. Riley, a publicist who once ran a clothing boutique near City Hall, was convicted on those and the eight other counts she faced, including tax evasion and cheating to obtain subsidized housing assistance for herself.