One more try

Conrad Black is back in court. Well, at least his lawyers are. Today, Black’s lawyers will take his last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. There, they will attack a controversial law that prosecutors used to put Black behind bars. “Honest services” is a legal concept that was developed to help convict politicians engaged in fraud. Since then, it has been used to target white-collar criminals, including Black. But Black’s lawyers argue that the U.S government should not have extended the law to apply to private conduct. They believe that if Black wins an appeal on the honest services issue, he could be released on bail from the federal prison in Florida where he has been serving a 6 1/2 year term. Black himself will not appear at the hearing in Washington.

The Chronicle Herald