Do blacks and hispanic find mercy in the courtroom like Fastow did?

[The Backlash Cometh]

"What moves the arm of justice is mercy," Hoyt told Fastow. "You were drunk on the wine of greed ... (but) you had a double portion, in that your wife shared in that (punishment)."

(So, the lesson here, if you're black or hispanic and might get caught selling drugs on the street, is to take your wife with you to soften the punishment?)

Full article

Fastow gets six years

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Andrew Fastow, who helped engineer the financial trickery that sank Enron Corp. and then helped prosecutors convict others involved in the scandal, received a six-year sentence Tuesday, four years less than the deal he had made.

U.S. District Judge Ken Hoyt said the 44-year-old former Enron chief financial officer had given "exceptional" assistance to prosecutors, had pledged to help victims and had remorse, and his wife, Lea, had gone to prison for a year.

The judge imposed no fine and recommended a minimum security prison for Fastow. He rejected a request from lawyers for victims who are suing to recover losses that Fastow be allowed to surrender October 23 after giving a deposition in that case.


Fastow had agreed to a sentence of 10 years in pleading guilty in 2004.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-09-26T182209Z_01_N25305176_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENRON-FASTOW.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-businessNews-2

[leftofthedial]

1. blacks and hispanics hell

ordinary citizens of all races don't get that kind of preferential treatment

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. True, true.

[marions ghost]

8. exactly

what I was going to say.

He got the kid gloves for the white collar exec.

[ShortnFiery]

15. Exactly! It's obvious and should make us ashamed of the

Justice System in this case. Ole' "Fast Eddie" Fastow should serve the entire 10 year sentence. When released, it should be part of his parole to manage a seedy bowling alley on the night shift and give every extra cent to all those people whom he cheated out of their Pensions within Enron. .... Well, I can dream, can't I? :blush:

[leftofthedial]

19. there is no "justice" in this country

there is leniency for the wealthy

there is random punishment for most

there is harsh, certain punishment for the poor

it is an economic system of rewarding and perpetuating the powers that be, like everything else under the yoke of capitalism.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Bet you don't get sodomized at Club Fed

[The Deacon]

21. If You Pay Enough In Cigarettes

You can.

[GreenPartyVoter]

23. True enough

[Jacobin]

3. Gee, its like the equivalent of him making $3million/year in jail

(divide money stolen by number of years in jail)
White collar crime PAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice message, idiot federalist judge.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Republicans WUV bleeding heart liberal judges when they get caught

and prosecuted for their white collar crimes.

[MikeNearMcChord]

5. Personally I would've sentenced him

to 10 years in a maximum security prison and have him live with hardened criminals, he will probably holed up in some country club prison.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Disgusting.

And to think his criminal activity probably sentenced many to eat cat food for the remainder of their days.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Ordinary people don't find mercy in the courtroom like fastow did.

[RangerSmith]

10. Depending upon the state,

this sentence is the equivalent of a typical 15 to 20 yr sentence to many state prisons.

Conditions aren't the same, not even close, but it does matter, you do all your federal time.

And under the circumstances, you don't get the big fish if the smaller fish don't talk and he did.

Still, he agreed to 10 yrs when he started singing... I would have stayed with 10.

[MountainLaurel]

11. Dave Chapelle did a great sketch on this

Looking at what it would be like if a drug dealer got the same sort of trial that a white-collar criminal got.

[UTUSN]

12. Does the pope have charisma? n/t

[Avalux]

13. A priveleged white male repug gives the reason:

Someone like Fastow who has contributed to society, will be wasted in jail. Better to slap him on the wrist and let him out to continue to work and contribute to society again. He'll have learned his lesson with a reduced sentence, really. (Heard this viewpoint on NPR this morning).

[ThomCat]

16. What the #$%@& has he contributed to society

other than a culture and acceptance of fraud, and the ruination of many innocent people's lives? :grr:

Anyone who advocates what you heard on the radio is a soulless corporate beast.
x(

[Avalux]

17. Exactly - it's all about money.

They see Fastow's life as more valuable because he made money; helped others make money.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. What happened to "it's all about the victims?"

I'm watching a show on Disccovery right now about some high school girls from a good high school and the girls were on trial for committing armed robbery four times. They were fined to seven and a half years prison, and the judge said,(I paraphrase), that it wasn't if you came from a good school, or a good community, or a good family. It's about the victims.

[Avalux]

22. Consider this -

my daughter received death threats from another student when she was in 7th grade. The girl wrote anonymous notes to my daughter and HERSELF, said horrible things like "I'm going to slash your throat" etc. - really scary, ugly stuff complete with hangman pics, blood dripping. At first, this girl was the victim too and I even invited her to my house so she wouldn't have to go home alone! She was a good student and friends with the principal's daughter. After about 6 weeks of investigating, it finally came out that this girl had written the notes. My daughter was completely terrified for 6 weeks by this sick little girl. There was a couple of weeks left in school and the girl was suspended.

Anyway - because her father worked for the city, she was an exemplary student and friends with the principal's daughter, she merely got a slap on the wrist and was back in school the next year despite my efforts to keep her out.

That's just how it works; people give smart well-to-do people a pass quite often - not realizing that yes, they can be criminals too.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. Schools are notorious for showing favoritism.

I had one lady tell me that at a well-to-do private elementary school, her son was molested by the son of prominent family. It wasn't just one boy who was victimized. When they asked the principal to expel the boy, the principal told them that they could leave if they wanted to, but he was not going to do anything to the child who was doing the molesting.

[ThomCat]

25. And that's when the lawsuits should have started.

x(

I don't care what business presured that principal was under, there is no excuse for something like that.

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. You know what, I'm getting the impression that lawsuits aren't as

plentiful as the Republicans claim. It's just a lot of hardship to put on a child, and then the time and money. Think about it. If you tell a kid at such a young age that it was just a little school play that went to far, but it's nothing to worry about, then suddenly you launch a lawsuit, what signal do you send to the kid?

Anyway, she might have taken that option. I never saw her again after that, so I don't know for sure.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Yeah, he's learned something. He's going to teach CEOs how to do

it better and get away with it.

[catmandu57]

14. It's not racial, it's economic

It there was an equal system of justice in this country noell bush and the pigboy would be in prison today. Poor people found guilty of the same crimes are locked up now.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

27. Hang on a second.

This guy is a fraudster, not a murderer or a rapist; a really major fraudster, but still not a violent criminal. Also, the offered him a reduced sentence in exchange for providing evidence - a distasteful practice, but very necessary to convict the even bigger fish. Given that, while it's clearly on the lenient side, I'm not convinced that 6 years is a travesty.