Skilling Ruling Results in Undoing of Conviction

U.S. District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin ruled that Nicholas Panarella, Jr., convicted in a political corruption scheme, is entitled to a "writ of error coram nobis" to vacate his conviction based on an honest services wire fraud scheme, according to The Legal Intelligencer.

Judge McLaughlin ruled that Panarella's conviction is no longer valid in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in Skilling v. Untied States, which significantly narrowed the scope of the honest-services-fraud statute.

"Where a person is convicted and punished for conduct that is not a crime, such circumstances constitute the sort of fundamental error that may warrant coram nobis relief," McLaughlin wrote.

McLaughlin said there was "no dispute that Panarella was charged solely with the undisclosed self-dealing theory that was invalidated by Skilling", reported the Intelligencer. As a result, Panarella's conviction "was predicated solely on conduct that is no longer a crime."

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