Former judge Rudy Delgado, who is in prison for judicial bribery, is asking a federal judge for compassionate release, arguing that he's at high risk of dying from the coronavirus because of frail health.

"This court never intended its sentence of imprisonment to practically result in a death sentence. It is not hyperbole to consider that Mr. Delgado is serving a sentence in a situation in which there is a significant likelihood of severe illness and death," said a motion for compassionate release filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Michael McCrum of the McCrum Law Office in San Antonio, who represents Delgado, said that he filed the motion pro bono because he doesn't want someone to die in prison because they lack funds.

"I just felt compelled to move forward," McCrum said. "The Supreme Court ruled about 40 years ago that when a prison cannot address the medical problems of a prisoner, that that amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. It's against our Constitution. We sentenced a person to go serve time in prison, but we didn't sentence him in this situation to die."

Angela Dodge, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, didn't return an email seeking comment before deadline.

The ex-judge is serving a 60-month prison sentence for his convictions of conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, obstruction of justice, three counts of federal program bribery and three counts of Travel Act violations.

In the motion, Delgado claimed that he fits into several of the categories that put people at a greater risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. He is 67 years old and has a compromised immune system because he takes an immunosuppressant medication, plus he has a heart condition and diabetes, among other things.

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Read the full motion:

Delgado acknowledged that he's only served five months of his 60-month prison sentence in the Bureau of Prisons' Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth. But he noted that the coronavirus is a threat in prison because inmates are in close quarters.

In his prison, Delgado claimed that the bureau of prisons website said that 217 inmates there have tested positive for the coronavirus. Among federal prison facilities, it's highest ranked for the number of affected inmates, the motion said.

Rudy Delgado Ex-Judge Rudy Delgado. Courtesy photo

Delgado argued that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act gave broad authority to the U.S. Attorney General and the Bureau of Prisons director to release inmates to home confinement. The attorney general in a memorandum told the prisons director to grant home confinement to inmates who have health problems that put them at risk, had nonviolent convictions and little chance of recidivism.

Delgado on April 3 put in an administrative request for release to home confinement, and it's pending. He claimed that his efforts are futile because the bureau of prisons stated in a bulletin that only prisoners who have served half their sentences can get release to home confinement.

Now he's asking the court to modify his sentence to time served, or possibly time served followed by supervised release requiring a condition of home confinement, the motion said.

"The issue is not only whether Mr. Delgado will contract the virus, but the extent to which he will experience a rapid, severe reaction which could lead to death given his medical condition," said the motion. "There is an emergency situation within this facility."

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