Enron's Jeff Skilling to get lesser sentence.

Talkleft:

Jeffrey Skilling, sentenced to 24 years in prison in the Enron case, had his conviction affirmed Tuesday by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals -- but the Court said the trial judge erred in his sentencing calculations.

The trial judge bumped Skilling four levels for "substantially jeopardizing the safety and soundness of a “financial institution.”

The appeals court said that was improper because there was no evidence the Enron Corporation Savings Plan and the Employee Stock Ownership Planare "pension plans" or “financial institutions” and any doubt must be resolved in favor of Skilling. It said "We are unprepared to declare every corporate retirement vehicle a “financial institution.”