Skilling v. U.S.

The Supreme Court will hear an appeal from Jeff Skilling, the imprisoned former Enron CEO, who contends he was tried by a prejudiced jury.

Skilling is serving a 24-year prison term after being convicted in 2006 of 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and deceiving auditors while his energy company fell apart.

In January, a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his convictions but ruled that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake had erred in his original sentencing and said the former executive would be resentenced. That hearing was postponed pending Skilling's appeal to the Supreme Court.

On Oct. 13, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Oral arguments are expected to be scheduled for some time early next year.

In addition to Skilling, media mogul Conrad Black is also challenging the use of so-called "honest services" prosecutions, in which the federal government argues that a white-collar defendant committed fraud by depriving his company or the public of his honest services.

The justices will hear Black's case in December. The court has also taken a third similar case involving an Alaska state politician who argued that he was wrongly prosecuted under an honest-services theory.

Question presented: whether the federal honest services fraud statute requires the government to prove that the defendant's conduct was intended to achieve "private gain" rather than to advance the employer's interests, and, if not, whether § 1346 is unconstitutionally vague. The second issue is whether the government must rebut the presumption of jury prejudice, which arose because of pretrial publicity and community impact of the alleged conduct, and, if so, whether the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that no juror was actually prejudiced.