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 The 73-year-old former governor, once the state's most powerful Republican, had been under a court order to report to prison within 72 hours of the failure of his appeal.
But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals relented and allowed him to remain free while his lawyers press their case for a rehearing before all 11 actively serving appeals judges.
Earlier Tuesday, a panel of the appeals court brushed aside claims by defense attorneys that jury deliberations at Ryan's trial had been fatally flawed and that the guilty verdict should be overturned.
His attorneys were filing for a rarely granted "en banc" hearing that would have the entire appeals court hear the appeal, said longtime Ryan supporter James R. Thompson, another former Illinois governor whose law firm, Winston & Strawn, represented Ryan for free.
"Gov. Ryan obviously is disappointed," Thompson said. But he said, "No court ever deprived a defendant of his life and liberty under these circumstances and that is an argument we will make if necessary to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Ryan was convicted last year of racketeering conspiracy, fraud and other offenses for taking payoffs from political insiders in exchange for state business while he was Illinois secretary of state from 1991 to 1999 and governor for four years after that. Prosecutors said he had steered state contracts and leases to insiders and used tax dollars in his political campaigns.
In his appeal, Ryan's attorneys argued that the jury's deliberations were flawed.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer had replaced two jurors with alternates after deliberations in the case had already started, and the defense said unauthorized documents brought into the jury room poisoned the deliberations.
The appellate panel disagreed Tuesday in a 2-1 decision.
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 "The fact that the trial may not have been picture perfect is, in itself, nothing unusual," Judge Diane Wood wrote in the majority opinion, joined by Judge Daniel Manion.
Judge Michael Kanne dissented and said Ryan and his co-defendant, businessman-lobbyist Larry Warner, should get a new trial. He called the jury deliberations "dysfunctional."
Ryan and Warner both maintain they did nothing illegal.
The investigation into the men began as a probe of bribes exchanged for commercial drivers licenses in Illinois. It ballooned into a wide-ranging investigation of corruption when Ryan was a major political power at the Statehouse in Springfield and led to dozens of convictions of state officials, lobbyists, driving instructors and others.
At the same time, Ryan was also being praised by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in the state and clearing Illinois' death row.
Ryan's appeal of his conviction was largely based on the decisions by Pallmeyer to replace the two jurors after deliberations had started. The dismissed jurors had been found to have omitted mention on pre-trial questionnaires that they had been in trouble with the police.
"The high profile nature of these proceedings gave rise to some unusual problems with the jury, but we are satisfied that the court handled them acceptably," the appeals court said.
[Associated
Press; by Mike Robinson]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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