WORLD Law Direct Forums
Home > WORLD Law Direct Forums > FORUM INFORMATION > Law News > Conrad Black’s Sentence Upheld; 7th Circuit OKs Ostrich Instruction

Conrad Black’s Sentence Upheld; 7th Circuit OKs Ostrich Instruction

This is a discussion on Conrad Black’s Sentence Upheld; 7th Circuit OKs Ostrich Instruction within the Law News forum, part of the FORUM INFORMATION category; Former newspaper tycoon Conrad Black enters the Chicago federal courthouse, June 30, 2006 (Credit: Associated Press/Spencer Green) Black, 63, and ...

Consult Your Own Personal Lawyer Now!
Reply

 

Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old Jun 25th, 2008, 07:20 PM   #1
News
 
WSJ_law_blog's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 1,438

Default Conrad Black’s Sentence Upheld; 7th Circuit OKs Ostrich Instruction



Former newspaper tycoon Conrad Black enters the Chicago federal courthouse, June 30, 2006 (Credit: Associated Press/Spencer Green)


Black, 63, and three other former Hollinger International executives — Peter Atkinson, John Boultbee and Mark Kipnis — were found guilty last year of defrauding the newspaper company out of millions of dollars. The defendants allegedly caused Hollinger, which now goes by Sun-Times Media Group, to make false filings with the SEC for “private gain.”

“If you receive a check in the mail for $1 million that you have no reason to think you’re entitled to, you cannot just deposit it and when prosecuted for theft say you didn’t know you weren’t entitled to the money,” Posner wrote, rejecting the defense’s argument that the jury was improperly given the “ostrich instruction.” (What’s an “ostrich instruction”? An “ostrich instruction,” Posner explains, “tells the jury that to suspect that you are committing a crime and then take steps to avoid confirming the suspicion is the equivalent of intending to commit the crime.” Posner also clears up a fallacy: The legend that ostriches bury their head in the sand when frightened, he says, is “pure legend and a canard on a very distinguished bird.”)

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in a statement, “The court found clear evidence that all four defendants engaged in a brazen, multimillion dollar corporate fraud scheme and deprived the public shareholders of Hollinger International of their right to the executives’ honest services.”

Black’s defense attorney, Mayer Brown’s Andrew Frey, told the Sun Times that, the defense team is “carefully studying our options as to what we can do to get things straightened out.” Black could still try appealing to the entire 7th Circuit Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last edited by top_admin; Jun 25th, 2008 at 08:15 PM.
WSJ_law_blog is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmark & Share



Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

| More

Posting Rules
You may post new threads
You may post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off

Format Your Messages
Add Forum to Google Toolbar
Forum Jump

Similar Threads

Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
NY Legislature OKs Nixzmary's law forum_admin Law News 0 Sep 11th, 2009 06:49 PM
Denver Doozy: Tenth Circuit Orders New Sentence, Fine, for Nacchio WSJ_law_blog Law News 0 Jul 31st, 2009 03:20 PM
High Court to Weigh Sarb-Ox; Conrad Black Conviction WSJ_law_blog Law News 0 May 18th, 2009 11:50 AM
Payment Release Instruction From The FBI‏ Unregistered Money Frauds and Scams 1 Apr 27th, 2009 10:10 AM


Powered by U.S. Legal Forms


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 08:06 PM.