Conrad Black to keep fighting to avoid prison

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fallen press baron Conrad Black has said he can survive the hard transition from a life of glamour and luxury to one of anonymity and menial prison labor, but he intends to go down fighting to overturn his guilty verdict.

"He's said he's innocent and we're going to the court of appeals to try to overturn this verdict," Black's Canadian lawyer Edward Greenspan said after U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve pronounced sentence on Monday.

A smile stole across Black's face as he strode away through the courthouse lobby and his lawyers said relief had replaced nervousness after his sentencing, but legal analysts differed as to whether 6-1/2 years was lenient, severe or just right.

"America is looking to make an example of senior directors and while Conrad Black's sentence was not harsh, it certainly was not lenient either," said Simon Bevan, a leading fraud investigator in London, where Black once ran the Daily Telegraph group of newspapers.

"He deserves every day he serves," said an editorial in one of Black's former flagship papers, the Chicago Sun-Times. "The Sun-Times suffered for years while Black conspired with former Sun-Times' publisher David Radler in their money-bleeding schemes."

Legal analysts also differed on Black's chances of reversing the jury's guilty verdict that he obstructed justice and defrauded shareholders of Hollinger International Inc, the former media giant he built and then dismantled.

Black, 63, has not wavered from his long-held stance that he is completely innocent, even in his remarks to the judge before his sentencing, and the judge said he had not accepted his guilt.

"We have the verdict we have and we can't retry the case," Black told the judge before she sentenced him to 6-1/2 years and ordered him to repay $6.1 million stolen from Hollinger in the scheme.

The judge permitted Black to remain free on bond pending his surrender March 3, but did not indicate whether she would allow him to remain free while his appeal is considered.

Black's lawyers must show they have a reasonable chance of succeeding for him to avoid prison during his appeal.

The appeal will likely take a year, and is expected to focus on the obstruction count in which Black was videotaped removing 13 boxes of documents from his Toronto offices in violation of a Canadian court order, legal analysts said.

Another issue that could be raised on appeal was the judge's instruction to the jury that Black could be convicted for knowing about the fraud but doing nothing about it.

The appeal may also argue that Radler, the prosecution's star witness, should have been ordered to mount the witness stand a second time to testify about what he knew about his own likely sentence.

Radler, a Canadian citizen, in his plea agreement won agreement from prosecutors not to oppose his request that he serve his time in Canada, where he would likely spend less than a year in prison since parole is more lenient there than in the United States.

Black -- who gave up his Canadian citizenship to become a member of the British House of Lords -- must under U.S. rules serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, unless he petitions successfully to be transferred to an English prison. His wife, Barbara Amiel, prefers to live in England.