Justice was tempered with mercy, reports the New York Times, when a federal judge gave former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow a six-year sentence. The original plea bargain looked like a certain 10 years in the big house.

Fastow has co-operated extensively and willingly by all reports and is helping lawyers with civil suits against banks that did a lot of the fancy financing that allowed Enron to keep failing deals off its books and pump up its appearance of profitability in the years before it collasped.

Enron has become a synonym for greed and stupidity but Fastow seems to be a bright spot in this whole sorry mess. He has tried to make amends and he seems to be deeply sorry for his role. That's a stark contrast with Jeffrey Skilling who argued from start to finish that he did nothing but make bad business decisions. The 20-years-to-life sentence he seems likely to get would be a just reward. And six years is no picnic, even in a minimum-security camp. How are the mighty fallen!