[JURIST] US District Judge David Hittner denied the Lea Fastow's request for an early prison release [JURIST report] Wednesday. Fastow, wife of former Enron [corporate website; JURIST Hot Topic archive] CFO Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty last year to willfully delivering a 2000 income tax return which she knew to be fraudulent. Fastow's attorney argued that her one-year prison sentence is twice what people normally serve for the misdemeanor crime and asked the court to consider that Fastow has been serving her sentence in a maximum-security detention center, rather than a minimum-security prison as is usual for tax offenders. Judge Hittner said he could find no legal grounds for vacating Fastow's sentence and replacing it with seven months time already served. Hittner noted that "While the court recognizes Fastow . . . is serving her sentence under conditions that may be more harsh as compared to other first-time tax offenders, designation of offenders for place of imprisonment is subject to the complete discretion of the Bureau of Prisons." The Houston Chronicle has more.