IMPROPER JURY INSTRUCTION RESULTS IN OVERTURNED FEDERAL CONVICTION AND SENTENCE

Client was charged with honest services fraud in connection with a government services contract. Defended at trial, by Richard Della Fera, the judge refused to give a jury instruction that client argued was compelled a recent United States Supreme Court case, Skilling v. United States (the infamous Enron case). On appeal, Della Fera made the argument directly to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and won. Thus, the conviction and sentence were overturned. Moreover, the Eleventh Circuit subsequently amended its own Pattern Criminal Jury Instruction as a result of the case of the argument resented in the case.