Judge to Rule This Week on Fate of Don Siegelman, Alabama Ex-Governor.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A federal judge said Monday that he expected to decide by end of the week whether to order the release of Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, as he again appeals corruption convictions that sent him to prison and became a flash point in this state’s political scene.

The judge, Clay D. Land, laid out his plan after hearing more than an hour of oral arguments from federal prosecutors and one of Mr. Siegelman’s lawyers. The former governor, dressed in a red prison jumpsuit and appearing much thinner than during his days in office, was in the courtroom, having been brought here from a federal prison in Oakdale, La.

Mr. Siegelman’s latest bid for freedom is something of an intermediate step in a case that has sporadically gripped the state for more than nine years. In court filings and again on Monday, Mr. Siegelman’s lawyers asked Judge Land to release him until the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit resolves his pending appeals, which hinge in part on claims of prosecutorial misconduct. The 11th Circuit, where Mr. Siegelman has amassed a mixed record since his conviction in 2006, is scheduled to consider the case next month.

Gregory B. Craig, the former White House counsel who argued Mr. Siegelman’s case on Monday, said he did not anticipate a quick end to the appeals process.

“I think it’s very unlikely that the court of appeals will conclude this within six months,” said Mr. Craig, who argued that an “abundance of caution” dictated that Mr. Siegelman should not be jailed with an outstanding appeal that could make its way to the Supreme Court.

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