Hill, a 19-year old black kid, confessed to armed robbery in
Dallas’ Lower Greenville section of town on Stain Patrick’s Day, while Skilling,
the former CFO of one of America’s largest energy companies, has never
confessed to having done anything wrong in the Enron debacle, which cost
billions of dollars and wiped out entire life savings for thousands of Enron
employees, not to mention investors, suppliers and others that suffered due to
the fall out from this thug’s crimes.
The black
kid gets 45 years for armed robbery.
Jeffery Skilling gets ten years commuted from his 28-year sentence. He
will be eligible for parole in about 8 years.
As the Morning News reported:
Ex-Enron worker Diana Peters, the only victim
who spoke at the resentencing hearing, said afterward in a phone interview that
Skilling should have to serve his entire original sentence.
"Jeffrey
Skilling has never taken any responsibility for his actions," said the
63-year-old Peters, who lives in Huntsville, north of Houston. "He has no
remorse for the end result of what happened."
During
the hearing, prosecutor Patrick Stokes criticized Skilling for continuing
"to cast himself as a victim" and said Skilling "is anything but
a victim."
"Mr.
Skilling was not only at the pinnacle of Enron, he was at the pinnacle of the
fraud schemes," Stokes said.
Once
the money from Skilling's assets is added, about $560 million in restitution
will have been collected for victims of the Enron scandal, Stokes said.
Former
Enron employee George Maddox said he still blames Skilling for his losing $1.3
million in retirement savings when Enron collapsed. Maddox worked for 30 years
as a plant manager with the company.
"Long
sentences are for no one but poor people," said Maddox, 79, who lives in
the East Texas town of Van and is now supporting his 16-year-old grandson and
himself mainly on Social Security income.
And just to make matters worse, the high court waded in to
this case when it ruled – again according to the Morning News:
The U.S. Supreme
Court said in 2010 that one of Skilling's convictions was flawed when it
sharply curtailed the use of the "honest services" fraud law - a
short addendum to the federal mail and wire fraud statute that makes it illegal
to scheme to deprive investors of "the intangible right to honest
services."
Honest
services? And your life savings are
being stolen out from under you? Is this
court a sham or what?
Now to be fair and honest, the black kid did use a gun in
his crime, which I think is low life and should be punishable by having your
hands removed at the neck. But the true story is there are hundreds of young
black and Hispanic men arrested every year in Texas for stealing a few dollars,
who end up serving more time than Skilling will.
Why?
Because in Texas and in the U.S., justice can be bought.
True, Skilling didn’t shoot anyone in his crime spree. But he did use computers, accountants and
lawyers as well as other complicit traders to pull off one of the largest
crimes of the century and he hasn’t shown a tear of remorse. So while no armed
robbery can be brought against him, he did rob, steel and injure thousands. And
his team of very highly paid lawyers got him first 28 years and then with the
help of costly legal appeals it has been knocked down to 14 with parole just
around the corner.
Got money? Get out of
jail. That is the U.S. justice
system. Oh yeah, it helps if you are white
and wear a suit to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment