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And they all lived happily ever after, thanks to Enron acquittals. Why is it you never hear the words "humbled prosecutors" in a routine case of drug possession, but rather only when we're talking about white collar criminals who also happened to be the biggest contributors to the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign?

After deliberating less than 24 hours over four days, a Houston federal court jury acquitted three of the men on some charges and deadlocked on most of the Enron Broadband Services case.

The five men faced various charges relating to their roles in allegedly misleading investors regarding the success of the Internet venture.

It's the second blow in less than two months for the Enron Task Force: The U.S. Supreme Court earlier overturned the obstruction of justice conviction against the Arthur Andersen accounting firm.

On Wednesday, jurors declared themselves deadlocked on many charges and prosecutors asked the judge to order them to keep trying. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore refused to do so, and declared a mistrial on the dozens of counts on which the jury could not agree.

"This verdict is a reflection of the complexity of this prosecution," said Robert Mintz, a New Jersey-based legal expert who follows the cases. "It spells trouble for the government trying to convince jurors in this case and others in the future."

He and other legal experts said the acquittals and mistrial can only bode well for ex-Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Rick Causey, who face off with the humbled prosecutors next January.

The case was bungled from the start. And quite probably by design.

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