Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Mr. Kirkendall is still trying to sell the notion that Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were courageous business pioneers who were wrongly convicted for being capitalists.

While I am concerned about excessive use of the criminal law, corproate crooks belong in jail just like the drug addicts who rob banks (and get a lot less money).

Professor, Kirkendall’s posting is horrible.  It brings to mind the notorious WSJ editorial in which the writer described those living below the poverty line as “lucky duckies.” Has Kirkendall really only just now discovered all of the problems in the United States criminal justice system becuase, God forbid, Jeff Skilling may fall through the cracks instead of a drug addled product of the ghetto?  Kirkendall is obviously concerned about the societal bias against the wealthy businessman and the human toll of prosecuting white collar crime, but one wonders if he has ever thought of the bias that your typical “street” criminal defendant faces, or the human toll of the War on Drugs. 

In the end it comes down to the perception of some that prosecuting white collar crime is tragic, while mentioning the inequities and human cost of the war on drugs and the American criminal justice system is “class warfare.”

I don’t see enough criminal actions brought in business cases.  Businesses violate environmental, labor, securities, anti-fraud, and every other regulatory law.  Lock a few of the perps up, and we’ll see that business people are easily deterred from breaking the law by the mere threat of criminal punishment.

The bias against the business class is real and has tragic results, just as the bias that has created the outrageous 100 to 1 crack/powder cocaine disparity.  Other absurdities, perhaps the result of bias/perhaps not, include the draconian 3 strikes you’re out laws.  The U.S. criminal justice system is badly broken, and Kirkendall, an experienced business attorney, is speaking of an aspect of it with which he has first-hand knowledge and many keen insights.  We should all be united behind the rule of law and a constitution with teeth, instead of fighting amongst ourselves.

WCZ, I invite you to visit my blog, where I frequently post on the dire societal consequences of America’s overcriminalization of individual drug use and many other non-business crimes. I have also blogged regularly on the abhorrent prison conditions in most of the U.S. and the use of excessive police force in connection with the investigation of non-violent, blue collar crimes. I specialize in business law, so I tend to blog often on the special problems with regulating business by criminalizing questionable business transactions because I am directly involved in that process. However, my views on that subject are consistent with an overall view on the blog that the criminal justice system in the U.S. is frequently being abused and that tolerance of such abuse is not the product of a truly civil society.