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Should Conrad Black (and Jeff Skilling and others) be set free pending SCOTUS action?

By Douglas A. Berman

Though the Supreme Court's cert grant yesterday in the criminal appeal of media mogul Conrad Black raises mostly white-collar substantive criminal law issues (as noted by bloggers here and here), I am wondering if and how this should impact the quasi-sentencing issue of bail pending appeal.  As noted here, Black was denied bail pending appeal by the Seventh Circuit last year and has now served more that a year in prison.  Though the SCOTUS cert grant does not ensure Black's convictions will be reversed, it does greatly increase the chances he could be freed eventually.  However, given the standard (slow) pace of SCOTUS action, Black's case won't be argued to SCOTUS until the fall and a ruling seems unlikely before 2010.  In light of the cert grant, it seem to me that Conrad Black now has a much stronger argument that he should be able to be free rather than locked up while his (suspect?) convictions are reviewed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).