by dugoboy » Tue Oct 17, 2006 7:25 pm
link: <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4265806.html" target="top"><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Judge vacates Ken Lay's Enron conviction</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay's criminal conviction was vacated and his indictment dismissed by a judge today.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>U.S. District Judge Sim Lake granted the request by Lay's estate to vacate the conviction, an outcome that was widely anticipated given legal precedent. He also dismissed the indictment used to bring him to trial earlier this year.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>Lay died July 5, just weeks after a jury found him guilty on six charges of conspiracy and fraud and Lake found him guilty on four charges of bank fraud.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>In his decision, Lake cited a decision in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that makes death, before the appeals process has been exhausted, grounds for throwing out a conviction and dismissing an indictment.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The Department of Justice tried to trump that precedent, however, when it asked Congress in early September to pass a law that would essentially prevent courts from vacating criminal convictions if a defendant dies before going through the entire appeals process.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br>The government asked Lake to at least wait until Oct. 23, when Lay was scheduled to be sentenced.<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The proposed law does not appear to have been picked up a sponsor in Congress.<br><br>Jeff Skilling, Enron's former CEO and Lay's co-defendant, is scheduled to be sentenced by Lake Monday.</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--><br><br> <p>___________________________________________<br>"Fascism finds root best in unreality and dysfunction." - Me<br><br>"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act" -George Orwell<br><br>"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always." -Mahatma Gandhi</p><i></i>