Timing, as they say, is everything.

Just as Judge Amy St. Eve of the United States District Court in Chicago was taking the bench to sentence press baron Conrad Black on mail fraud and obstruction of justice convictions, Supreme Court justices were issuing a 7-2 ruling that enhances the power of federal judges to use their discretion in sentencing.

Judge St. Eve settled on 78 months in prison and will require Black to forfeit $6.1 million.

In July, after a four-month trial, a federal jury in Chicago found Black guilty of  three charges of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.  He and three other former executives of Hollinger International had been accused of looting the company for their own gain.

Today's Supreme Court ruling, meanwhile, in a cocaine case, means that Judge St. Eve's "decision on the sentencing is going to be just this side of impossible to overturn," says Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School, who has been following the Black prosecution on his white-collar crime law blog.

Six and a half years is a long time, but it could have been worse. At the outset of today's hearing, St. Ive indicated that she was contemplating a sentence of 78 to 97 months, meaning that she had settled on an offense level of "20" under the 2000 sentencing guidelines.

That was an immediate setback for prosecutors, who were pushing for a 20-year sentence under the harsher 2007 sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors had also put the amount of loss related to the fraud at $32 million.

The judge also granted 12 weeks for Black to report to prison. "That's pretty nice," says Henning. "She cut him a fair number of breaks and he still got six and a half years."

The Blacks have requested a prison in Florida close to Palm Beach. But Henning expects that Black's appellate defense team, which includes Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, plan to challenge her denial of bail pending the outcome the appeal of Black's conviction.

"I have no doubt that they have their brief drafted. And they may just win that motion: Joseph Nacchio, the ex-chief of Quest, won such a reprieve from an appeals panel in the 7th Circuit, the same jurisdiction where Black's case is pending.

But St. Ive didn't find much wrong with the trial or verdicts in a 39-page opinion filed Nov. 9, denying Black's motion for a judgment of acquittal.

At the sentencing, Black disappointed those who were anticipating a lengthy oratory --- word was that he had drafted a 5,000-word speech. Black said only a few words and for only a few moments, barely audible at first, according to a live blog of the proceedings posted by Maclean's magazine. He expressed his "very profound regret and sadness at the severe hardship on all shareholders including many employees."

According to the Globe and Mail, Black also said: I have never uttered one disrespectful word about this court, jurors or prosecutors," apparently seeking to deflect his previous comments to the press referring to the prosecutors as "Nazis."

For Henning, Black is "your worst nightmare as a client... some of his bombast even comes through in the comments made by his lawyers."