Former Enron boss Jeffrey Skilling, who has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for insider trading and fraud, has begun his appeal against the sentence.

His lawyer, Dan Petrocelli, pleaded for his client to be released from a Minnesota prison, where he has been held since December 2006. The Houston Chronicle's Loren Steffy describes it as a lawyer's dance. And the lawyer, according to Steffy, is drawing a very long bow.

"Much of Petrocelli's argument centered on the legal provision known as "honest services" and whether it applies in this case. The argument is at odds with common sense. It basically says that Skilling isn't guilty because what he did benefited Enron, even if it was fraudulent. Therefore, he couldn't have deprived Enron of his 'honest services'. Skilling, Petrocelli said, 'acted in Enron's interests at all times.'.

Still, you could hardly say he was acting in shareholders' interests when, according to the charges, he was misleading shareholders and the investing public into believing the financial strength and security at a time when Enron was falling apart.

Still, the "honest services" argument might give his appeal a shot, says Kristen Hays in the Houston Chronicle. And if that happens, the Enron Task Force will be nothing more than a giant failure.