Legal Commentary

Why bother with a trial?

By Tom Kirkendall

This earlier post noted the troubling indications that R. Allen Stanford and that the federal judiciary to date is doing precious little to check the prosecutorial power of the executive branch as it applies to Stanford. This is not the first time that the prosecutorial power has run amok in a Stanford case.

Now, the motion below reveals that the Department of Justice has placed Stanford under jail conditions that are roughly comparable to those that prisoners endure in third world prisons.

Meanwhile, Stanford essentially has no ability to assist his counsel in the defense of a complicated white collar criminal case.

Increasingly, the U.S. criminal justice system is resembling this one. Yet, after the judiciary and the local media allowed the Enron Task Force to get away with various outrages against Jeff Skilling and various other former Enron executives, it's as if even the most overreaching actions of the executive branch are now considered acceptable. Or at least not worth the effort of an objection. Or serious media scrutiny.

We live in scary times.

Stanford Mtn Re Jail Conditions

Full post as published by Houston's Clear Thinkers on July 28, 2009 (boomark / email).