Legal News

Skilling?s Shot at 5th Cir. Rehearing Draws an (En) Blank

By Ashby Jones

When Jeff Skilling received word from the Fifth Circuit last month that his appeal had been denied, some commentators hinted at the possibility that his lawyer, O’Melveny & Myers’s Dan Petrocelli, might move for a new trial.

But Petrocelli stayed in the appeals game, asking the full Fifth Circuit to hear his case en banc, suggesting that if that didn’t work, he’d file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well, we’re half-way there. The Fifth Circuit yesterday denied Skilling’s en banc request. Here’s the story, from the Houston Chron.

En banc hearings are rare, and Skilling’s request was a longshot. The Circuit denied the request without explanation.

Skilling is serving a 24-year term at a prison in suburban Denver. But the appeals panel that upheld his convictions ordered his trial judge to re-sentence him because a mechanism in federal sentencing guidelines was wrongly applied to boost his term, and he now faces a range of 15-20 years.

Next stop for Skilling and Co.: the U.S. Supreme Court.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).