HOUSTON — The former chief executive of disgraced energy giant Enron asked a federal appeals court on Monday to grant him a new trial based on a Supreme Court ruling his attorney said puts his conviction for conspiracy and securities fraud in question.
Jeffrey Skilling’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, presented his argument to a three-judge panel scheduled by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court’s ruling in June that an anti-fraud law was improperly used to help convict Skilling in 2006 for his role in Enron’s calamitous downfall demanded a new trial, Petrocelli said. The jury received bad instructions, he said, that could have tainted their decision-making.
The prosecution, however, countered that the instructions given to the jury were “harmless” because the evidence against Skilling was overwhelming. The Associated Press
