I saw an article this morning on CBS about Enron; some new audio tapes of telephone conversations have been released, and they add to the mountain of evidence that Enron illegally manipulated the California energy market. But it was this line that caught me: "The new tapes... confirm what CBS News has been reporting for four years: That Enron secretly shut power plants down so they could cause, and then cash in on, the crisis." [emphasis added]
Yes, that's right--the power crisis was back in the summer of 2001, and Enron filed for bankruptcy Dec. 2, 2001 after the scandal broke. It took three years before (on July 7, 2004) Ken Lay was finally indicted by a Grand Jury--and now it's 2005 we're still awaiting the trial. Assuming the trial actually finally happens sometime, it will surely drag on for months, and then will immediately be appealed, and then re-appealed, etc., taking many more years. All this while Enron claims it is "fully cooperating" with the investigations!
Can anyone please explain to me why obtaining justice takes so damned long in this country? Are there too few judges? Is there not enough money for the courts? Are the laws written to permit virtually endless stalling? Could it be that we do we not have enough qualified lawyers in this country? What is it? And what can we do to fix it? How can any law deter white collar crime if defendants are more likely to die of old age before they get to trial? And while I'm at it, why do appeals in death penalty cases take so long? Is it the same problem? Even in the bloodthirsty Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the average time an inmate stays on death row before execution is 10 1/2 years.
What's the problem? Help a layman understand this, will you?
Friday, February 04, 2005
Justice Delayed is Justice Denied
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 11:11 AM
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I think part of the problem in this particular case is that the authority responsible for prosecuting the case is currently being managed by people who recieved millions and millions from Enron and Enron executives in the form of campaign contributions.
Remember also that during this same period, Dick Cheney was in meetings with Enron executives among others about how to restructure the energy regulations in this country. The transcripts of those meetings are still not open to public scrutiny. My own speculation is that things were said at this meeting that relate to the artificial energy crisis in Democratic voting states on the west coast - especially California. So the Bush administration does not want this to go to trial before they leave office because when it goes to trial all this will come out.
I doubt very much that things will get better with the Texan, Gonzalez in charge at the Justice Department. That's why it is so important for the Democrats to gain control of one of the Houses of Congress in 2006! So they can start Congressional investigations into this whole affair.
I'll leave it to LTG to discuss the issues regarding court funding, appeals etc.
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