Quote:

the G-man said:
Enron Founder Ken Lay Dies of Heart Attack

This may create an interesting legal issue. In certain situations, where a defendant dies before his sentence, his attorneys can ask the court to vacate his conviction, on the theory that no one is "finally convicted" until sentence is imposed.




Lay death makes money claim moot: lawyers

    Ken Lay's sudden death on Wednesday will scuttle U.S. prosecutors bid to seize $43.5 million they charged the former chief executive earned through illegal acts at Enron Corp., legal experts said.

    However, claims filed by shareholders against Lay and other senior Enron executives in a civil case can proceed, the lawyers said.

    Lay, 64, died of coronary artery disease early on Wednesday in Colorado, just six weeks after a jury convicted him and former chief executive officer Jeffrey Skilling of conspiracy and fraud in the collapse of Enron into bankruptcy in 2001.

    The U.S. Justice Department's Enron Taskforce filed a motion on Friday asking U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake to force Lay to pay $43.5 million and Skilling to pay $139.3 million.

    Under precedents set by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, a defendant is not technically ruled guilty until the person has been sentenced and has exhausted the appeals process, lawyers said.

    Since Lay died before his sentencing and appeal, the conviction does not stand, and the financial claim by the government will not proceed, they said.

    "I think it's pretty clear the conviction will be abated," Michael Wynne, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice said.

    Nancy Rapoport, a professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said the courts have previously ruled that once a defendant had died, the process could not go forward because there was no further penalty the legal system could implement.

    "The reason they do it this way is there's nothing really left to punish," she said.