Conrad Black is given a glimpse of freedom

Has the disgraced newspaper tycoon Conrad Black finally found an argument that could get him released from jail? Having already tried everything else to get his six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice overturned - which included angling for a presidential pardon from George Bush - he's now sent his lawyers to the Supreme Court to plead his case.

While there's no guarantee it will lead to his freedom, the majority of the nine judges did at least question seriously the controversial fraud law that was used to get him jailed by a Chicago court in 2007.

The former Daily Telegraph owner's daughter, Alana Black, and son, James Black, were in the packed public gallery for the Supreme Court hearing yesterday. The man himself, now 65 and serving his time at the federal jail in Coleman, Florida, was not allowed to attend.

What Black's appeal lawyer Miguel Estrada argued was that the "honest services" law used to prosecute him was "basically a mess" and horribly vague.

The law allows for the conviction of people who deprive constituents, employers or shareholders of their entitlement to "honest services".

It was drawn up to deal with corrupt public officials but has been used by prosecutors in several high-profile cases: Jeffrey Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, was also nailed this way, and it is currently being used to prosecute Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor accused of trying to "sell" President Barack Obama's former seat in the Senate.

Several of the nine Supreme Court justices appeared to be persuaded yesterday by Estrada that this law might indeed be an ass. The deputy US solicitor general, Michael Dreeben, who argued that