Frequently, they’re allowed time to put their affairs in order before reporting to prison, but it’s extremely rare to allow white-collar criminals to remain out on bail during the entire appeal process.
What makes him less of a flight risk than anybody else, his integrity as a public servant?
And before a trial, the accused has the presumption of innocence. Delay has been convicted; does he get to walk around free on the presumption that his appeal will be successful?
(That’s rather snarkily phrased, I suppose, but it’s a serious question for any legal-eagle Dopers. How common is it for people who have been convicted of a crime to be free while their appeals are pending?)
Maybe he’s hoping to be asked back for another round of “Dancing With the Stars”.
I’ve seen that show. He should get LIFE just for that. 
I don’t agree with it, either. Just trying to see it from the court’s viewpoint.
I thought he was indicted by a Texas DA, and tried and convicted in a Texas court under Texas law. Federal crime?
Maybe his cellmate will tell him to “shake, shake, shake…shake, shake, shake…shake your booty!!”
In the circumstances DeLay finds himself in, it’s not too uncommon. If DeLay was sentenced to 10 years or more or if it were a “3G” assaultive offense he would not be eligible for an appeal bond, but since that’s not the case he is eligible.
He also has a few factors weighing in his favor: he’s 63 years old and has no prior record, he was convicted of a non-violent crime with no direct victims (unlike, say, Madoff), he has significant ties to the community, and his prison sentence is reletively short, all of which add up to him not being a flight risk. 3 years in prison on a nonviolent offense is close to “standing on your head” time. If he has to serve his prison sentence he will be eligible for (and will probably get) parole in a matter of a few months. That’s not a special favor to him, a dope dealer doing 3 years for possession with intent to distribute would be eligible in the exact same amount of time. DeLay would be a fool to abandon his family and everything he owns and go on the run to avoid a few months of unpleasantness in a safekeeping unit.
It probably doesn’t hurt that the all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to be much more friendly to DeLay’s interpretation of the law than was the trial court or the Travis County DA, and would almost certainly issue an appeal bond themselves if the issue came before them.
You are correct. DeLay was prosecuted in state district court by the Travis County District Attorney for violations of Texas law
Hmmmm… Texas has a criminal penalty less than death? Color me impressed.
Sure they do! Sometimes Walker Texas Ranger only punches you
Federal Criminal. Texas Criminal. Regardless, I’m pretty sure if I was convicted of anything at any level I’d be sitting in stir, wearing a number and talking to my lawyer through bullet proof glass, not lounging beside the pool waiting for my case to be dropped as soon as the check clears.
I thought that was the method of execution.
That’s worse than death.
No, he just forms the thought of punching you in his mind, and you drop dead from fear.
Tom DeLay served all the time he is going to serve after he got fingerprinted. Forget it, Jake. It’s Texas.
Excerpt from the salon.com article, The end of Tom DeLay:
Repugnant, anti-democracy comicbook villain walks free.
First Zimmerman, now Delay. What are the courts coming to, with all this pesky nonsense about “evidence”?
Regards,
Shodan