Jailed Enron boss claims 24-year sentence resulted from unfair trial

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Guardian

Jailed Enron boss claims 24-year sentence resulted from unfair trial
Andrew Clark in New York

The jailed Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling today embarked on an appeal claiming that his 24-year sentence for fraud and insider trading resulted from an unfair trial in a city alive with "venomous emotion" over the energy trading company's collapse.

One of America's most notorious cases of corporate corruption sparked back to life at a packed courthouse in New Orleans as Skilling's lawyer, Dan Petrocelli, pleaded for an immediate release for his client, who has been in a Minnesota prison since December 2006.

Legal analysts say the appeal has a chance, albeit it a slim one, of persuading a panel of three judges either that a key prosecution theory was flawed or that his case ought to have been moved from Enron's home city of Houston.

Skilling, 54, has never swayed from his protestations of innocence - his appeal brief says he is in prison "not only for crimes that he did not commit, but for acts of business judgment that are not crimes at all".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/apr/02/enron.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

---

I guess it was unfair.

No tar & feathering. No 'run out of town on a rail'.

[hobbit709]

1. You left out strung up on a lamp post.

[laststeamtrain]

3. Right. n/t

[PittPoliSci]

2. somebody call a wahbuluance.

i think he's got something in his cry.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Give Ken Lay a buzz.

Problem solved.

[FreepFryer]

18. c/o 'Alfredo Ruiz', Costa Rica (n/t)

[shain from kane]

5. Sounds like a lover's spat with his cell mate.

[tanyev]

6. Did you give Grandma Millie all her money back, Jeffrey?

No? Then STFU.

[MADem]

9. Naah, Mrs. Ken "Unconvicted" Lay got to keep it...that's the real irony. NT

[NV Whino]

7. Yeah?

Fuck him.

[dflprincess]

8. If he just waits until January

I'm sure pResident Zippy will pardon him.

[RavensChick]

11. I doubt it

but knowing that dipwad of a president it could happen.

[RavensChick]

10. Oh, cry me a river!

Take your punishment like a man and shut up!

The sentence was as fair and impartial as it could be.

[RC]

12. Skilling didn't walk, so it was unfair.

What we really need is more people like this in prison. Then maybe we can at least hold our heads up again when we have to admit to being Americans.

[DCKit]

13. The next jury pool should consist entirely of people who lost their life savings to Enron.

He'd soon find out what "fair" really means.

[NBachers]

14. How Many Years Did People Work

to equal all the money you siphoned off? How many lifetimes of work? How many dollars and coins put aside for the future? How many Americans played by the rules year after year and saw it all flushed down the toilet?

The entire state of California held hostage for their power?

Yeah, right, Jeffery - you're the victim here. Smuggle some butter out of the chow hall - you'll be needing it to lubricate your rectum.

How's the winter been up there in F.C.I Waseca, Jeffy?

[Crabby Appleton]

15. I think 24 years is a very light sentence for that scumbag. nt

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Look out. Bush may pardon him and I wouldn't be surprised. n/t

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hekate]

19. Aw, poor baby. I guess Grandma Millie didn't donate enough to the cause. California is still paying.

...and paying. Thousands more schoolteachers are going to be laid off soon, raising class sizes still further and making it even harder for schools to not leave any children behind.

I don't recall us having a budget crisis before Enron blew us away. And laughed about it. Where's our bailout?

Hekate

[Critters2]

20. He's just mad he's not vacationing in the Caymans with Kenny Boy! nt

[fascisthunter]

21. Rot in Prison You Greedy Prick

[mrdmk]

22. People died here in California during those blackouts. Case closed, end of story

and Jeffrey Skilling wants to bitch about 24 years in prison.

Where is that 'cry me a river' smiley when you need it?

[McCamy Taylor]

23. No, he has a fair complaint. No one was ever tried for the price gouging of California.

Witnesses like Fastow and Skilling were sent to jail on other charges and were denied the opportunity to cooperate with the feds in exchange for naming higher ups---who, in this case would have been people like George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Army Sec. Thomas White.

The Bush strategy has been to indict, prosecute and jail everyone who had evidence of Bush complicity in the price gouging. They are all in prison where they can not talk for fear of an "accident".

Congress needs to spring these people and grant them immunity on the price gouging of California only on the condition that they tell all that they know about what White, Rove, Bush, Cheney, Lay and the others did.

Then, the DOJ under the next Democratic administration can rework their sentences taking into account the help that they have given in bringing these VIP criminals to justice.

[santamargarita]

24. Damn Right! It should have 124 years!

K&R

[Ilsa]

25. Oh, go ahead and let him out...

so the rest of us can kick his ass.

[mbperrin]

28. Now there's a notion. Just a little hint on the blogosphere

as to when and where....

Jeffrey? Oh, Jeffie? Millie's back and she is PISSED! Bad news, dude, she's been working out!!!!

:spank:

[melm00se]

26. You may not

like him. You may think he should burn for his crimes. you may think that he is the most evil person to walk the earth since...

but you may not deny him the right to appeal his conviction. Let him appeal, it is unlikely that his conviction will be overturned (and even if it is, he will be retried) and once his appeals are exhausted, he sits in prison for the duration of this sentence.

[AngryAmish]

27. Who wants to bet me that he walks?

9th Circuit alredy said that the "theft of honest services" concept by the government was improper. It was a basis of his conviction.

It'll get overturned.