Wesley Snipes Stays In Jail After Supreme Court Denies Appeal

Since December 2010, actor Wesley Snipes has been serving a 36-month sentence for three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns — a verdict that came down in 2008.

The Blade star managed to avoid jail time for two years by posting bail while keeping the case tied up in various stages of appeal. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court officially declined to hear Snipes' most recent appeal, which cited that the actor's constitutional rights were violated when he was denied an evidentiary hearing to explain why he should be tried in New York instead of Florida.

Snipes may feel like he got a raw deal, but his co-defendants in the 2008 case, Eddie Kahn and Douglas Rosalie, who advised the actor on his taxes, were convicted of the greater charges of felony tax fraud and conspiracy. They are serving 10 years and 54 months, respectively. Snipes still received the maximum time for the lesser charge, and will finish out the remainder of his sentence, which is set to end in December 2013, at a minimum security federal prison in Pennsylvania.