This one takes the cake.
After trampling justice and the rule of law for five years while damaging lives, families and careers of former Enron executives and a selected few who did nothing other than have the misfortune of engaging in transactions with Enron, the Enron Task Force outdid itself yesterday in responding to the Ken Lay Estate’s motion to vacate the jury verdict against the late Mr. Lay.
In its response, the Task Force requests U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to postpone ruling on the Lay Estate motion until the Task Force has had an opportunity to lobby Congress to change the law that mercifully provides for the dismissal of charges against individuals such as Lay who die during the criminal proceedings. The Chronicle’s Tom Fowler reports on the Task Force pleading here, Chronicle business columnist Loren Steffy comments here and the NY Times’ Alexei Barrionuevo reports here.
Given the Task Force’s lengthy track record of exhibiting dubious judgment, its over-the-top response to the Lay Estate motion is really not surprising.
However, it is a stark reminder that the use of the overwhelming power of government to criminalize business executives — now even in death — is seriously out of hand, as even some prominent former Justice Department officials are now acknowledging publicly.
As Sir Thomas More reminds us, we better address the difficult task of curtailing use of that power, lest it be used on us.
Let’s see, the Enron Task Force wants to delay the Judge’s ruling, change a law, and make the change retroactive! Is the Task Force’s character and judgment so far gone that they actually consider this reasonable or just? Let’s hope that the public and the mainstream press can finally muster the kind of outraged response that the tactics of the Task Force have long deserved.
I didn’t know prosecutors could ask for legislation. I didn’t go to law school ar anything, but I’m pretty sure that retroactive legislation that is applied to one person is not ethical. Come to think of it, pushing someone to plead guilty to a charge the preosecution can’t articulate isn’t ethical either.
wow.
The government doesn’t like the rules by which everyone is playing so they call timeout and ask to change the rules. This law has been in existence for years. They knew this rule going into it. I am sure no one anticipated Mr. Lay’s passing but they cannot change the rules in mid-stream. The government has lost and they don’t like losing so they win by changing the rules? This Enron task force is out of control and needs to be reeled in soon. It makes me fuming mad that my tax dollars are being used for this injustice.