CHICAGO | Looking at more than six years in prison and turned down for the second time by a federal appeals court, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan called his old friend and defense attorney, James R. Thompson, also a former governor of Illinois.

"I told him to keep fighting," Thompson said Thursday after the federal court refused to grant Ryan and co-defendant Larry Warner a fresh hearing on their corruption convictions.

"He told me that he would keep fighting," Thompson told reporters. "What do you think he's going to do, quit? He won't quit."

Thompson said he would try to keep the 73-year-old Ryan free on bond while he appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. But that appeared to hold out little more than a glimmer of hope because the high court takes few cases.

"If the Supreme Court does not hear our appeal, that will be the end of the line and Gov. Ryan will have to report to prison," Thompson said.

With Ryan running out of options, one of the biggest scandals ever to sweep through Illinois politics seemed headed to its final chapter after nine years of investigations and trials.

In a dramatic 6-3 decision, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request from Ryan and Warner for a rehearing of their corruption convictions by all of the sitting judges.

Thompson said he hoped that the appeals court would extend Ryan's bond one more time while the last-ditch effort was made in the Supreme Court.

But Thompson said both sides would ask trial Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer at a hearing set for 10 a.m. today to set a Nov. 7 surrender date in case the appeals court refuses Ryan's request.

Ryan has been free on bond since a jury convicted him in April 2006 of using taxpayer money and state workers to run his campaigns and covering up bribery at driver's licensing stations when he was secretary of state.

Ryan based his appeal on extraordinary jury deliberations following the six-month trial. After the jury had already deliberated for eight days, Pallmeyer dismissed two jurors for lying about their police records on pretrial questionnaires. They were replaced by alternates.

In Thursday's decision, the six majority judges on the appeals court took just a single paragraph to dismiss the request for a rehearing.

Even the three judges who voted to grant Ryan a rehearing by the full court agreed "that the evidence of the defendant's guilt was overwhelming."

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald issued a statement Thursday saying the government was "pleased that the full Court of Appeals has decided to let stand the initial careful opinion of the court's majority, which held that the defendants received a fair trial."

Associated Press writer Tara Burghart contributed to this report.