Later Wednesday, Ryan's lawyers took his fading hopes to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they asked Justice John Paul Stevens to keep Ryan out of prison while he asks the full court to step in.

"No jury trial is perfect — to be sure. But perhaps no federal trial has ever been as deeply and fundamentally flawed as this one," Ryan's attorneys wrote, saying his corruption conviction stemmed from chaotic and unfair jury deliberations.

Ryan's chief defense counsel, former Gov. James R. Thompson, acknowledged that getting the Supreme Court to set bond would be unusual.

Ryan, 73, has been free on bail since he was convicted in 2006 of steering state contracts to friends, using tax dollars to run his campaigns and covering up drivers license bribery.

The verdict capped one of Illinois' biggest political scandals, bringing with it nine years of investigations and trials that wrecked Ryan's career and sent dozens of others to jail.

"The voluminous record here demonstrates that the appellants were guilty of the crimes with which they were charged," Wood wrote.

Ryan and Warner had sought a new trial based on chaotic jury deliberations at the end of the trial. Two jurors were dismissed and replaced with alternates after the jury had deliberated for eight days. One juror brought an outside legal document into the jury room as a persuasive tool in defiance of the trial judge's instructions.

The appeals court said Ryan and Warner had shown no "reasonable probability" that the U.S. Supreme Court would take their case or reverse their convictions.

Ryan's wife, Lura Lynn, said when reached by phone at the couple's Kankakee home that her husband was not available. "We had not heard this," she said. "I have no comment."

Warner's attorney, Edward Genson, was not immediately available for comment, his office said.

Ryan has been assigned to the federal correctional institution at Duluth, Minn., a minimum security camp. But he is trying to get his assignment switched to the correctional center at Oxford, Wis.

Warner has been assigned to a federal prison in Colorado.

Earl Wesley Berry was set to be executed at 6 pm (2300 GMT Tuesday), but the procedure was halted when the Mississippi Department of Corrections received the ruling from the Supreme Court ordering a stay of execution at 5:41 pm (2241 GMT).

"Now that the United States Supreme Court has deemed the method of execution needs to be reviewed, the state (of Mississippi) will await the final order of the court," read a Department of Corrections statement.

"The agency will work within any newly established guidelines to ensure that executions are carried out in a constitutional manner."

The Supreme Court did not give reasons for the stay or say who voted for or against it, but an earlier Court statement said that two of the court's conservative justices, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito, opposed staying the execution.

Five votes of the seven top US justices must approve a stay of execution for it to be enacted.

Berry was on death row for killing a woman in 1987.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also extended parts of the consent decree — part of the 2002 antitrust settlement, which is set to expire Nov. 12 — to no later than Jan. 31, 2008, to allow time to consider the arguments made by both sides.

Two separate groups of states filed motions last week asking Kollar-Kotelly to monitor Microsoft through 2012.

In one court filing, the states of New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida said they were concerned that the oversight may not have "enough traction to enhance long-term competition" among makers of computer operating systems.

Kollar-Kotelly gave Microsoft until Nov. 6 to oppose the motions, a week longer than the original deadline.

The judge gave the U.S. government a Nov. 9 deadline to submit an amicus brief, and said the states must file additional responses by Nov. 16. She also canceled a status hearing that was slated for Nov. 6.

The antitrust settlement reached among Microsoft, the federal government and 17 states barred the software maker from certain anticompetitive behaviors and sought to keep it from using its operating system monopoly to quash competition in other types of software.

Jones' attorney, James Ecker, said his client could have been sentenced to years in prison if she had not reached a plea agreement.

"She's very happy, she's continuing going to church and she has a job," Ecker told The Associated Press. "She's very happy and her family's very happy."

Jones was the last of four defendants to plead guilty in the September 2006 shooting in which basketball players Sam Ashaolu, Shawn James, Kojo Mensah, Aaron Jackson and Stuard Baldonado were injured.

The gunman, William B. Holmes III, 19, was sentenced Friday to up to 40 years in prison. Another shooter, Derek Lee, 19, was sentenced Oct. 23 to up to 14 years in prison. The two shots fired by Lee did not hit anyone, authorities said.

Jones was a member of the group that sponsored the dance, and invited a group of friends, among them Holmes and Lee, to the on-campus party. She knew some of the men were armed and asked a doorman if people attending the dance were being frisked, which they were not, authorities said.

Another girl, Erica Sager, 19, who knew the two gunmen, flirted with the basketball players, sparking the fight between the two groups. Sager had pleaded no contest to a riot charge and was sentenced to probation.

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O'Toole on Tuesday harshly criticized Jones for inviting the gunmen to the party. Jones burst into tears and apologized for her actions after O'Toole sarcastically told her she could have also chosen to hang out with gangsters Bonnie and Clyde if they were available.

Three of the players who were shot, James, Mensah and Jackson, have recovered and are expected to start this season. Ashaolu, who still has shrapnel lodged in his head, is back in school, but does not expect to return to the team until next season.

Baldonado has been suspended due to several arrests this year. It is unlikely he will to return to the university. In April, he sued Duquesne University, alleging it failed to provide adequate security at the dance.