... The important development related to [Black's] chances of winning his appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court and it came from a surprising source. Falling just short of waving a white surrender flag, the same United State Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Illinois that launched Black's prosecution signalled its shaken belief that his fraud convictions might be vacated. ...
... The alarm bell has been sounded in prosecutors' offices across America that the honest services fraud statute may be on life support. ...
... If the fraud statute is ruled to be unconstitutional, Black's remaining three fraud counts will invariably fall. And what of the obstruction of justice charge that would remain? The court might be persuaded that if it isn't vacated, Conrad Black will be left with a single conviction for a crime committed in another country in relation to a set of circumstances that were determined by the court to be non-criminal. The absurdity of that logic leading to a dubious conviction could possibly lead the Supreme Court to vacate the charge of obstruction of justice as well.
[Via Mark Steyn at 'the corner']
4 comments:
Good news indeed. It would be a very good thing to have Mr. Black back among us.
I've always thought that Black's trial and conviction was a farce, so I'm glad to hear that it might be overturned. The sooner he's free, the better.
Free Lord Black. This has been a trvaesty of justice.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all of Conrad's convictions disappear.
The next best thing to seeing Conrad vindicated and released from jail will be watching his prosecutors' embarrassment and his many lefty detractors sputtering, fuming and gnashing their teeth.
Then I hope to see the whole sorry episode chronicled in a gripping new Black bestseller.
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