Wesley Snipes says he will appeal against a three-year jail term

actor Wesley Snipes says he will appeal against a three-year jail term for failing to lodge tax returns from 1999 to 2004.US Federal Court judge William Terrell Hodges laid down the harshest possible sentence against Snipes, after the star of such movies as Demolition Man and the Blade trilogy of vampire movies was found guilty by a jury in February on three misdemeanour charges.US Attorney Scotland Morris, who argued the Government's case, said Snipes owed more than $US20 million ($A21 million) in back taxes and penalties.The actor made a $US5 million payment to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on Thursday but Mr Morris dismissed it as "a fraction of what he owes"."Snipes' long prison sentence should send a loud and crystal-clear message to all tax defiers that if they engage in similar tax-defier conduct, they face joining him and his co-defendants … as inmates in prison," said Nathan Hochman, an official at the Justice Department's tax division.IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman said: "The law is very clear: people must pay their taxes. There is no secret formula that eliminates a person's tax obligations, nor are there any special exceptions."Lawyers for Snipes, 45, said they would appeal."We were hoping for a complete acquittal," lawyer Linda Moreno told reporters. "I have faith in the process and I have faith in the jury system. We will appeal."Another defence lawyer, Carmen Hernandez, said: "Mr Snipes was sentenced because he's Mr Snipes."
Judge Hodges denied that Snipes' celebrity was in any way linked to the sentence.The actor's lawyers asked Judge Hodges to allow Snipes to be sent to a prison close to his home in the north-eastern state of New Jersey. The judge said he would consider the request.A martial arts fanatic, Snipes is famous for inserting quotations from Sun Tzu's The Art of War into his characters' roles.Snipes, who has appeared in about 50 movies, also starred in White Men Can't Jump and Spike Lee's Jungle Fever.During the day-long hearing the actor apologised to the court for his actions.Ms Hernandez argued that Snipes in August offered to plead guilty to one misdemeanour and pay the back taxes to avoid prison time, but prosecutors had demanded he admit to a felony, a harsher crime.