Lay's death could set Skilling free (Globe & Mail)

Lay's death could set Skilling free
Lawyers likely to argue that entire case has effectively been voided

nneth Lay's sudden death could prove to be an unexpected legal bequest to Jeffrey Skilling, his co-defendant in the landmark Enron Corp. fraud case.

Mr. Skilling's legal team will almost certainly invoke Mr. Lay's demise to try to reverse his own fraud and conspiracy conviction or demand a retrial, legal experts said yesterday.

That's because Mr. Lay's death Wednesday of an apparent heart attack effectively voids the entire case against the Enron founder, including the guilty verdict. Mr. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive officer who is appealing his own conviction, could now argue that much of the evidence against him stems from a case that no longer exists, argued lawyer Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and white collar crime specialist.

"This is the first time this has happened in such a high profile case," Mr. Frenkel said. "Everybody is scrambling to see what the law says on this."

:popcorn:

We are no longer talking about an ongoing case here, we are talking about 2 CONVICTED FELONS!

I could see the argument if there had not been a decision yet, but the jury has spoken! Lay AND Skilling were both found GUILTY!

Just because they haven't been sentenced yet has no bearing on the guilt phase.

Skilling's lawyers might be searching the legal history for some precendencem but I'm thinkin they're going to have to tell dear Jeff, sorry, but you're IT!

More and more this is sounding like a carefully hatched plot by the Rovies. Sure beats a pardon which is what Bush would have given them.

Lay had a LOT of powerful people pissed at him. He conned and fucked some of the biggest creditors and capital investment firms in the world with his legalized Ponzi scheme. That's what did him in, if he was actually done in. Jail wasn't half his worries. Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank, Barclays of London, and who knows how many other investors were out to carve up Kenny boy's last dime. By dying know (or by "dying" now) he passes his four or five remaining houses and his fleet of Beemers and Jeeps onto his wife more or less seizure-of-asset free.

UNCONVICTED.

I think they may have grounds for a retrial, as they were tried together, and half the "guilty party" is dead.

I don't like it either, but that's our system.

http://www.answers.com/topic/conviction

Conviction

The outcome of a criminal prosecution which concludes in a judgment that the defendant is guilty of the crime charged. The juncture of a criminal proceeding during which the question of guilt is ascertained. In a case where the perpetrator has been adjudged guilty and sentenced, a record of the summary proceedings brought pursuant to any penal statute before one or more justices of the peace or other properly authorized persons.

The terms conviction and convicted refer to the final judgment on a verdict of guilty, a plea of guilty, or a plea of nolo contendere. They do not include a final judgment that has been deleted by a pardon, set aside, reversed, or otherwise rendered inoperative.

It's only a hard and fast conviction when the appeals process has been exhausted. So you see, there was no "final judgment" on his guilty verdict, because he had not begun yet to appeal that verdict. He was in STAGE ONE of a long process. Since Kenny's dead, he cannot appeal. The only option, and don't shoot the messenger here, is for the courts to PRETEND IT NEVER HAPPENED:

Reuters reports (here) that former Enron CEO Ken Lay died at his vacation home in Colorado. 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." United States v. Asset, 990 F.2d 208 (5th Cir. 1993). In a recent Fifth Circuit decision, United States v. Estate of Parsons, 367 F.3d 409 (5th Cir. 2004), the court explained that "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."

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/whitecollarcrime_blog/2006/07/ken_lay_dies_of.html

They are appealing right up until the moment that they die.

And that is either when the Supremes review and give the thumbs down to the request, or the Supremes decline to take it on at all. After that, they're toast...but generally, they wait until they're close to toast to even jump that last hurdle.

Ken Lay had several layers of appeal to get through before he hit the Supremes wall {where they either take it, or not). He had just started the process.

Even though they were found guilty, they aren't technically proven guilty until the appeals process is finished.

that either of these 2 guys would ever see the inside of a prison?? Money, connections, um...bloodline, they have to be good for something, right?

does that mean the first guy goes free because the only person who could testify about how the crime was committed is dead?

If Skilling goes free, I'll KNOW that Lay isn't really dead.

sentencing... apparently.

One case has nothing to with the other. His lawyer should be embarrassed--he'll never get this case up the courthouse steps. If Skilling wants to get out of his conviction, he could always follow in Lay's footsteps.

:headbang:
rocknation

kenny-boy escape hatch.

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The talk during the trial was how hard it would be to convict Lay, but Skilling was toast on the evidence. So try him again, dammit! If that's what your wealthy Christian male sensitivities require!

And they had to rule that Lay was "never really convicted" of any crime. If nothing else, it would show up the level of corruption that is now commonplace.

Does this mean Zarquawi never committed any crimes either?

People are charged and convicted in absentia all the time, but I guess that doesn't apply if you are well connected (even as a ghost) to a corrupt leadership clique.