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Lord Nazir Ahmed, 51, was sent to prison for 12 weeks on February 25 for dangerous driving after a collision which killed a Slovakian on a motorway in Yorkshire, northern England, on Christmas Day in 2007.
But judge Heather Hallett the court had been persuaded that it could now take an "exceptional" course and suspend the 12 weeks for 12 months. The peer is now set to be freed Friday morning.
Judge Alan Wilkie said Ahmed's exchange of text messages with a journalist amounted to a conversation which took place as the peer was travelling at around 97 kmph (60 mph) over a 29-kilometre (18-mile) stretch of the road.
Ahmed's Jaguar ran into a stationary Audi car, whose driver Martyn Gombar, a 28-year-old father of two children who was living and working in England, had crashed minutes earlier.
The court heard that subsequent tests showed Gombar had been drinking and crashed his car into the central barrier of the motorway, spinning the vehicle around in almost total darkness.
The judge said Ahmed's text message conversation ended three kilometres, or two minutes, before the collision with the Audi.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party, for which Ahmed sat in the unelected upper chamber House of Lords, said after his sentence that "any member who receives a custodial sentence is subject to automatic exclusion".
But judge Heather Hallett the court had been persuaded that it could now take an "exceptional" course and suspend the 12 weeks for 12 months. The peer is now set to be freed Friday morning.
Judge Alan Wilkie said Ahmed's exchange of text messages with a journalist amounted to a conversation which took place as the peer was travelling at around 97 kmph (60 mph) over a 29-kilometre (18-mile) stretch of the road.
Ahmed's Jaguar ran into a stationary Audi car, whose driver Martyn Gombar, a 28-year-old father of two children who was living and working in England, had crashed minutes earlier.
The court heard that subsequent tests showed Gombar had been drinking and crashed his car into the central barrier of the motorway, spinning the vehicle around in almost total darkness.
The judge said Ahmed's text message conversation ended three kilometres, or two minutes, before the collision with the Audi.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's ruling Labour Party, for which Ahmed sat in the unelected upper chamber House of Lords, said after his sentence that "any member who receives a custodial sentence is subject to automatic exclusion".
