Jeffrey Skilling: Justice?

Jeffrey Skilling got a taste of justice on Monday.  The ex-Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling watched as former employees and investors ripped him and then he was handed a harsh sentence.

Was it justice?

The 52-year-old Skilling stood stoically, his hands clasped before him, as presiding Judge Sim Lake handed down his sentence of 24 years and four months in prison.  Skilling was also ordered to pay about $50 million into a restitution fund for Enron's victims, rather than monetary damages to the government.

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According to the Associated Press those that lost everything and were allowed to speak at the sentencing hearing called him everything from greedy, to a liar, to a drunk. 

"You should send him to the rest of his life in prison," former Enron employee Anne Beliveaux told U.S. District Judge Sim Lake after saying that Skilling's actions, which helped bring down the company, were the result of "greed, nothing but greed."

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Skilling will appeal. 

But he will likely not be allowed to remain free during the appeals process.  U.S. District Judge Simeon T. Lake III rejected a defense bid that would allow Skilling to remain free while he contested his conviction in May on 19 charges of fraud, conspiracy and insider trading, reports The Washington Post.

Skilling was not allowed to leave the courthouse until authorities fitted him with an electronic ankle bracelet that officials will use to monitor his movements while the Bureau of Prisons determines where he will serve his term.

He has asked to be sent to a medium-security prison in Butner, N.C.

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"I am innocent of these charges. I am innocent of every one of these charges," Skilling said. "We will continue to pursue my constitutional rights."

Legal observers see a very small chance of Skilling's conviction getting overturned based on that issue, some expect that Skilling may stand a better chance on appeal on other grounds.

--Gene Byrd writes from California

Additional Sources: Washington Post, AP