Legal News

Skilling, Petrocelli Make Two More Pleas to the Fifth Circuit

By Ashby Jones

You’ve got to give former Enron chief Jeff Skilling credit for dogged persistence.

Skilling and his legal team — led by O’Melveny & Myers’s Dan Petrocelli — suffered a big setback earlier this month when the Fifth Circuit largely shot down Skilling’s appeal (though ordered the trial court to recalculate Skilling’s sentence). (Click here for the opinion; here for an LB post.)

But today, Petrocelli was back at it, requesting both that that the entire Fifth Circuit hear the appeal (called an “en banc” appeal) and that the three-judge panel reconsider certain arguments as well. Along the way, Petrocelli is making fairly clear that no stone will be left unturned. (Click here for the Houston Chron’s take; here for the AP’s; here for the en banc motion; here for the motion to the three-judge panel.)

In the wake of the Fifth Circuit’s opinion, at least one commentator suggested that a request for a new trial might represent Skilling’s best hope for winning his freedom. But at least for now, Petrocelli seems focused on waging his battle at the appellate level.

In the en banc brief, Skilling argues that the Fifth Circuit erred in applying the law in the circuit on the “honest services” theory — in other words, as prosecutors successfully argued, that he put his interests ahead of Enron’s and deprived the company of his “honest services.” Skilling also argues in that brief as well as the three-judge rehearing brief that he didn’t waive his objections to several jurors, as alleged in the Fifth Circuit opinion.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).