(no subject)

[ebonlock]

Gah. Ok, so I posited yesterday that it seemed awfully damned convenient that Ken Lay should just happen to keel over after a massive heart attack just out of the blue. Turns out even I didn't know how convenient his death really was:

Under the Fifth Circuit's law of abatement of a criminal conviction when a defendant dies before appellate review of the conviction, "It is well established in this circuit that the death of a criminal defendant pending an appeal of his or her case abates, ab initio, the entire criminal proceeding."
[...]
"the appeal does not just disappear, and the case is not merely dismissed. Instead, everything associated with the case is extinguished, leaving the defendant as if he had never been indicted or convicted." In Parsons, the court vacated a forfeiture order, which means that the government's forfeiture claim against Lay for $43.5 million (see earlier post here) will be dismissed.
[...]
Unlike the criminal case, civil claims against Lay, such as the SEC's case and the securities class action, will continue against his estate. However, because the criminal conviction is wiped out, the plaintiffs cannot rely on it as proof in their case, if my dim memory of collateral estoppel serves me right.

Ok now I'm convinced he offed himself.

Comments

[ebonlock.livejournal.com]

It is rather sad that I don't feel like I can take anything at face value any more. If Bush came on t.v. to announce that the sky was blue I swear I'd have to run outside to check it myself. And then I'd wonder what had prompted his announcement, who a blue sky was likely to benefit and how it would be used against the Democrats...