Peter Henning has all the facts about the Enron prosecution's latest attempt to push the envelope -- in this instance, the time-space continuum.  Houston Chronicle article here.  Specifically, prosecutors have asked Judge Sim Lake to delay sentencing for Jeff Skilling, set for October 23, until Congress can consider a proposed bill to change existing federal law that vacates a criminal conviction if the defendant dies before appeals are exhausted.  In other words, the prosecutors do not like the state of the law, which will require Ken Lay's conviction to be vacated on October 23, and have asked Congress to pass a new law that will create a new result.  The new result will enable the conviction to stand and prosecutors to go forward with forfeiture proceedings against Lay's estate.  The new law will be retroactive to July 1, 2006, days before Lay's death.

Prosecutors are arguing that this law change is necessary to protect the crime victims and to provide restitution.  However, we have a system that has one purpose -- victim compensation.  That is the private litigation system, and the case against Lay is still lingering over there on that side of the fence.  If we feel that the civil system is not equipped to compensate the harmed in stock fraud cases, then perhaps we should focus on that side of the fence instead of changing existing federal law in a matter of weeks that will have a wide-ranging effect on criminal defendants in the future.

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