If Ken Lay were alive, he'd be a free man

This government?
Yeah. that'll happen.

 

More GOP hijinks.

 

Whistle while you work, and steal, while you can . . .

 

If Ken Lay were alive, he'd be scratching on the coffin lid just like Jim Morrison.

 

Ken Lay died two days after my mom. My sisters and I talked at the funeral home about how we hoped she was standing at the pearly gates, ready to slap him hard when he tried to plead his case. My mother, who grew up in a Depression shack without indoor plumbing, detested anyone who would hoodwink hard-working people who stayed out of trouble and wanted nothing more than what they earned.

 

I hope she used her "pimp" hand.

 

I understand why the verdict was overturned.

But it blows, especially the money part.

 

It's not cosmic justice, but if he had died between the time he was indicted and the time he had stood trial, the government would have had to drop the charges. And using that scenario, if Lay had died before the trial started, his testimony which might have helped Skilling couldn't be used, so it could have worked both ways.

Look, I know about Lay's connection to raising funds to get Bush elected and I know it took a long time to bring him to trial and I know about the lies leading to the invasion of Iraq. But there are police and hospital officials who would have been required to do their jobs and I don't think it is reasonable to believe they would all be corrupt or corrupted. Let's be realistic here.

 

Yeah, but we're talking about a guy who wound up making pond scum look like
Scarlett . . .

 

I'd venture to say none of the people bilked out of their money by the Enron execs ever had George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush or George W. Bush appear in a personalized video praising them for their contributions to Democracy, and I'm not sure any of them would have been able to afford the appeal process that now gets Lay off the hook legally if not morally.

 

Given the strong established precedent that dying before exhausting appeals means the conviction goes away, a second year law student could have gotten Lay's sentence vacated. You don't need a crackerjack attorney to accomplish that.

 

Would someone with no money and no clout have even filed for an appeal? Or would it not matter?