Peter Henning over at the White Collar Criminal Prof Blog is skeptical that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake’s letter-writing campaign is going to induce any of the recalcitrant witnesses in the criminal case against former Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey to come forward in the face of the prosecution’s intimidation tactics and confer with the defendants and their counsel. Professor Henning concludes as follows:

It’s a little bit like the old Woody Hayes view of passing: only three things can happen if you meet with the defense lawyers, and two of them can be bad, so why take the risk? I will be surprised if many of the 38 letter recipients agree to meet with the defense team.

Many folks down here in Texas believe that former Texas coach Darrell Royal popularized that pithy quote about passing in football, but I believe that Professor Henning is correct that Coach Royal picked it up from Coach Hayes.