Mark Steyn does Conrad Black's trial

Conrad Black is an English version of Rupert Murdoch, Australia's contribution to the media industry. Black was recently pursued by SEC and Federal prosecutors for looting his public company and many other charges relating to business practises, tax evasion, etc. After a four months long trial he was convicted on just two of the 13 or 15 charges, and those appear to be quite minor but enough to put this man away for 30 years. Mark Steyn, a conservative blogger, columnist and author, covered Black's trial from beginning to end. If you want to read something about American jurisprudence that will send shivers up your spine, read this,here.

A follow up piece by Steyn, after received "reactions" to his original piece in the link above, follows here. Having a good friend whose life some years ago was turned upside down by an out-of-control SEC investigation, I can fully understand where Steyn is coming from. In addition to the points he makes there is also the point to be made that the government prosecutors have UNLIMITED resources with which to put on its case and no matter how well off the defendant may be, his resources are limited. Our legal system is out of control and will remain so as long as the Democrats and regretably some Republicans remain wedded to the trial lawyers lobby combined with big, hostile-to-business, government. This problem is going to require serious root canal work at some point in time, and in the meantime everyone would do well to steer clear of the feds and trial lawyers, if possible.

Here's yet another article here by Steyn on the same subject: prosecutorial abuse and criminalization of just about any activity that does not satisfy the politically correct crowd. Obviously, according to Steyn and others (for example the WSJ's Dorothy Rabinowitz, who exposed the madness involving out-of-control prosecutors and the day care operators around the country who were accused, falsely, as it turns out, of all sorts of sexual abuse of pre schoolers in the early '80's) prosecutorial abuse is now so rampant that the American judicial system is simply no longer fair nor reasonable. Add the Nifong case to these two recent examples of Steyn's, and the evidence is on the side of those who believe the system is badly broken. Now what to do about it, or, in fact can anything be done about it given the out-of-control state of the political correct, speech monitoring, multicultural liberals now pervading out education and judicial systems. This is a serious problem.