A judge has denied an ex-New York Assembly speaker bail pending the appeal of his corruption conviction and seven-year prison term.

U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni says in a written opinion Monday that the substance of Sheldon Silver’s appeal lacks merit.

She noted the 74-year-old Silver’s age and said the true purpose of his appeal is to postpone his day of reckoning. Silver is scheduled to report to prison Oct. 5.

Silver, a Democrat, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after his first conviction in 2015. That conviction was overturned after the U.S. Supreme Court redefined the boundaries of public corruption.

A second jury convicted him earlier this year. Prosecutors said he earned $5 million illegally.

(AP)