Supreme Court to hear appeal by Enron's Skilling (legal, attorneys, bias)

[sickofnyc]

The justices agreed to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld Skilling's 19 felony convictions. Skilling's attorneys appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that prosecutors used a flawed legal theory to convict him and there had been juror bias against him.

Skilling's attorneys said prosecutors improperly relied on the "honest services" theory, under which employees are bound to provide honest services and not put their interests ahead of those of a company.

They said Skilling did not breach his honest services duty because he never was dishonest to his employer and always acted in Enron's interest.

Supreme Court to hear appeal by Enron's Skilling | Reuters

Now wasn't that admirable of him!

[specialrequest]

Here in Chicago the weatherman on WGN, Tom Skilling is the brother of this guy- I think of that a lot when I see him on TV talking about stormfronts approaching-

[chielgirl]

Isn't he part of the party of personal responsibility?

[odanny]

Houston based Enron which had a very close relationship with the Bush family, in fact, it was George W.'s father, George H.W. Bush, who personally helped Enron become the power player they were and greased the skids for them to steal billions. I bet
Thomas, Scalia, Roberts and Alito want to overturn the conviction

[sanrene]

All the dirty dealing under Enron came when Bubba was in office.

[sickofnyc]

Originally Posted by odanny

Houston based Enron which had a very close relationship with the Bush family, in fact, it was George W.'s father, George H.W. Bush, who personally helped Enron become the power player they were and greased the skids for them to steal billions. I bet
Thomas, Scalia, Roberts and Alito want to overturn the conviction

That is exactly what crossed my mind when I first read this. Ken lay was very close the Bush's...they affectionately called him "Kenny Boy".

While the White House has repeatedly described former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay as simply a "supporter" of George W. Bush, extensive correspondence between the two men paints a far cozier picture of their relationship, according to copies of letters obtained this afternoon (2/15) by The Smoking Gun.

The Smoking Gun: Archive

[Drover]

Originally Posted by odanny

Houston based Enron which had a very close relationship with the Bush family, in fact, it was George W.'s father, George H.W. Bush, who personally helped Enron become the power player they were and greased the skids for them to steal billions. I bet
Thomas, Scalia, Roberts and Alito want to overturn the conviction

Actually the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case because there is severe confusion in the appellate courts about what limiting factor should be used contour the honest services statute (there is currently a four-way split), because the statute itself is so open-ended that virtually anyone who does anything more severe than steal paper clips from their employer can conceivably be brought up on fraud charges. The statute in its entirety reads, "For the purposes of this chapter, the term 'scheme or artifice to defraud' includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." Every circuit has recognized the need for some limiting factor so that people don't face federal fraud charges for lying on their resume or calling in sick to go to a baseball game. They just can't agree on which standard to use.

Additionally, Skilling was also convicted of securities fraud, making false representations to auditors, and insider trading. Those convictions will almost certainly stand; the Supreme Court is mostly interested in resolving the honest-services-fraud issue. So while it's easy for those predisposed to partisan navel-gazing to imagine that Alito/Scalia/Thomas/etc. are rubbing their hands at the opportunity to overturn the conviction of a Bush buddy, there is a very real need to hear this and other honest-services-fraud cases to resolve the fustercluck that the lower courts have made of it. With the circuit courts now split four ways on the issue, it was overdue that the Supreme Court stepped in to resolve it.

So while Skilling is not a particularly sympathetic defendant, even he's entitled to have notice of what the law actually is if he's going to be brought up on charges that he violated it. He's also entitled to have his conviction overturned if it turns out the statute used to convict him was unconstitutional. Lastly, this isn't the only honest services statute case they agreed to hear. They've also granted cert to U.S. v. Black and U.S. v. Weyhrauch.