This news just in — the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Enron Task Force’s petition for en banc review of a Fifth Circuit panel’s decision that struck down the wire fraud and conspiracy convictions of four Merrill Lynch executives involved in the controversial Enron-related Nigerian Barge case.

The Fifth Circuit’s now final decision in the Nigerian Barge case calls into question a number of convictions obtained by the Task Force during its reign of terror over the past five years, not the least of which is the conviction of former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, who is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.

Regardless of the impact of the Fifth Circuit’s decision in the Nigerian Barge appeal on the other Enron-related cases, here’s hoping that the Fifth Circuit’s decision of today puts a nail in the coffin of the Task Force’s case against the four Merrill Lynch executives, three of whom are subject to a retrial as a result of the Fifth Circuit panel’s decision (one Merrill defendant, William Fuhs, had his conviction reversed and is not subject to retrial).

The damage to justice and the rule of law that has resulted from the Task Force’s pursuit of this abomination of a case is bad enough. But the damage that has been done to the careers and families of these men alone calls for this sordid chapter in the criminalization of business in the post-Enron era to be closed.