I recognize the Wall Street Journal’s John R. Emshwiller has already cashed in on the Enron saga. But even that reason for wanting to move on to something else cannot explain this tepid ($) article on the prosecutorial misconduct that has tarred the Enron case and is now the subject of a pending motion to dismiss the criminal charges against former Enron key executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey.
Although Mr. Emshwiller notes some of the allegations regarding prosecutorial misconduct in the pending Lay-Skilling-Causey motion, he inexplicably ignores compelling evidence of misconduct that has already occurred in other Enron-related cases, including the fact that such misconduct has already contributed greatly to the unjust conviction of at least four men. Meanwhile, Mr. Emshwiller’s article even suggests that the Enron Task Force is on the side of the greater public interest in requesting public disclosure of the confidential sources of information relating to prosecutorial misconduct that has provided under seal to the judge in the case, but then fails to explain how such confidential sources could be protected from Task Force retribution if they were publicly revealed and fails to report that it’s been the Task Force that has continually attempted to suppress evidence that would be helpful to the defendants in the only Enron-related criminal cases that have actually gone to trial.
My goodness, has the presumption of guilt toward any Enron-related defendant reached the point where even the nation’s leading business newspaper has simply dispensed with even reasonably detailed or at least balanced reporting on the case?