[JURIST] Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profile; JURIST news archive] is expected to report to a minimum security federal prison in Waseca, Minnesota [BOP website] to begin a 24-year sentence for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading after a three-judge panel of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled [order, PDF] late Tuesday against his application for bail [JURIST report] pending appeal of his sentence. Skilling had earlier been allowed to postpone his prison date while the bail application was considered.

Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for the court:

Our review has disclosed serious frailties in Skilling's conviction…, difficulties brought by a decision of this court handed down after the jury's verdict, as well as less formidable questions regarding the giving of jury instruction on deliberate ignorance. Yet Skilling raises no substantial question that is likely to result in the reversal of his convictions on all the charged counts. We are not then persuaded that any resulting sentence will likely exceed the expected duration of his appeal.