Why is Ryan still free?

With little left to rule on now that an appellate court has taken over her case, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer was left Wednesday to attend to the menial details: when George Ryan will report to prison should his latest appeal attempt fail.

And while she was able to set a timetable -- settling on four business days after a "mandate" or final order is entered by the appellate court -- the very prospect of Ryan remaining free fully 16 months after his conviction in April 2006 left open the question of whether his delays are a matter of fairness or of influence.

While most defendants go to prison soon after they are convicted, Ryan received an unusual appeal bond allowing him to remain free while trying to get his conviction reversed. The order requiring him to report to prison within 72 hours of his appeal failing was issued in December. The court extended it late Tuesday as lawyers scrambled to keep Ryan out of prison.

As she did throughout Ryan's trial, Pallmeyer again sought Wednesday to be fair to everyone, accepting a suggestion from Ryan attorney James R. Thompson that 72 hours would be too little time for him to put his affairs in order and report to the prison where he's currently assigned: Duluth, Minn.

"It's really hard for Gov. Ryan to get his life in order," Thompson said.

He suggested instead that after the appellate court rules, another hearing be held to establish a "date certain" when Ryan must report to prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joel Levin objected, arguing that would unnecessarily delay Ryan's imprisonment.

"Gov. Ryan should be making arrangements now," said Levin. "I think he's on notice now."

Looking for "consensus," Pallmeyer ruled that no further hearing is necessary. Because mandates are entered seven to 14 days after an appellate court's decision is released, four business days after the mandate should give the former Illinois governor at least 11 days notice, she noted.

Thompson said he is trying to get the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to reassign Ryan to Oxford, Wis., so his wife Lura Lynn won't have to travel so far to visit him.

Ryan's conviction has been upheld by a three-judge appellate court, but the same panel granted his request to remain free on bond while he asks all 11 judges of the court to review his case.

When the judges will rule on whether they want to take his case is uncertain, Thompson said.

Legal experts agree that serious questions concerning problem-plagued jury deliberations at the close of Ryan's six-month trial remain before the 73-year-old Ryan is sent off to start his 6½-year sentence. But some acknowledge political clout may be at work.

"Look, if he were Joe Shmoe, he'd be gone," Roosevelt University political scientist Paul Green said Wednesday. "But then, if he were Joe Shmoe, he wouldn't have been governor."

Loyola University law school Dean David Yellen didn't see it that way.

"I would be surprised if it were clout," Yellen said. "It's not as if he were the only criminal defendant who had his bond extended."

Ryan certainly has both political and legal firepower on his side. The former governor's personal supply of clout may have eroded after years of scandal in his era at the Statehouse, but the same is not true of his legal team.

The Associated Press reported that Thompson, who has served as Ryan's spokesman recently and himself a former governor, said in an interview Wednesday that he had personally pushed for the nomination of three members of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, which at the moment has 11 members.

He said those members were judges Joel M. Flaum, Ilana Diamond Rovner, and Ann C. Williams -- the most recent of his proteges to be named an appeals judge. None were on the court's three-judge panel that issued Tuesday's ruling.

At her installation, Williams strongly thanked Thompson for being instrumental in helping her get the appeals court seat.

But Thompson stressed the relationships would not get Ryan any special consideration. For one thing, Thompson said, Flaum would decline to be part of such a hearing because his wife is an employee of Winston & Strawn, the big Chicago law firm that provided Ryan his legal defense for free.

Ryan was convicted of steering state contracts to political friends in exchange for benefits ranging from expense-paid vacations in Jamaica to a free golf bag. He also was convicted of covering up an investigation of bribes paid in return for driver's licenses -- a practice involved in the death of six children in one family. And he was convicted of using state employees and state money to fuel his political campaigns going back to the early 1990s.

Professor Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois-Springfield political scientist, said a combination of factors probably went into the decision to allow Ryan to remain free this long.

"Obviously, you've got very high-priced legal representation, and I think you do get deference, but it has also been clear in terms of granting the bond initially that there certainly is a difference of opinion," he said.