Lay Dies On Vacation In Aspen

Convicted criminal, Ken Lay, died last night of a massive coronary at his vacation home in Aspen, Colorado. He was 64 years old, and was awaiting sentencing since being convicted of fraud and conspiracy in the Enron scandal.

I must admit that part of that opening sentence really pisses me off. Not the part about his coronary and death. Few people can control the manner and time of their death. No, the part that upsets me is the fact that he was "at his vacation home in Aspen, Colorado". He was not only not in jail, he was on an out-of-state vacation.

Once again the justice system shows us how differently it treats the rich. This man had been convicted of multiple crimes and could possibly have spent many, many years in prison. A person without Lay's resources would have been jailed immediately after the verdict. Even in the extremely unlikely possibility of a release bond until the sentencing, the person would not be allowed to leave the state.

This is what worries me about the death penalty. I believe a country has the right to defend itself from vicious sociopaths [and many can be dangerous to others even in prison]. But it must be done fairly. As long as the rich are treated more fairly than the poor, our justice system cannot be trusted to mete out the ultimate punishment.

Ken Lay never spent a day in jail, and that is just wrong. He ruined the lives of thousands of people with his thievery. At least part of his life should have been spent behind bars. Like our justice system, life is not fair.

UPDATE - MSNBC is now reporting that Lay's convictions will be vacated since he died before sentencing. Federal law is going to let Lay go to his grave with no convictions. This will make it much harder for the government to get to his money to reimburse victims of his crimes. This is just so wrong.



NOTE - Palm Beach County officials have announced that they will NOT be filing charges against Rush Limbaugh for his Viagra incident. Of course it had nothing to do with his money and fame, did it?