Free Dollar Bill?

This week the Supreme Court answered former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling's appeal of his fraud conviction by very nearly striking out the "honest services" corruption statute underpinning his and numerous well-known public corruption convictions. One such example is that of former Congressman William Jefferson who now stands a chance of significantly reducing the sentence against him as a result of this ruling. Although, according to this, he probably won't get away entirely.

"It's a significant development for Jefferson's case, but it doesn't mean he will walk free," said Randall Eliason, former chief of the Justice Department's corruption and government fraud section.

Jefferson was convicted of three explicit honest services counts, and some of the remaining eight guilty counts -- there's disagreement on whether it's as few as two or as many as six -- may have included some elements of the honest services statute.