The Reincarceration of Conrad Black

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270492/reincarceration-conrad-black-mark-steyn

June 25, 2011 7:02 A.M.
By Mark Steyn    

I am overseas at the moment and have just caught up on the coverage of Judge Amy St Eve’s decision yesterday
to send my old boss (and now NRO colleague) Conrad Black back to jail. Following the Supreme Court’s
overturning of the “honest services” basis of his conviction, Conrad was released from prison in
Florida, after serving two years, to await re-sentencing. Given that he was, in effect, improperly
convicted on the majority of charges, a civilized and humane justice system would have concluded that it
was both absurd and vindictive to return him to his cell for the one shred of the United States
Government’s case that has not been tossed out along the way in Conrad’s seven year battle.

But the Department of Justice is not civilized and humane. As I wrote here:

   The federal justice system is a bit like one of those unmanned drones President Obama is so fond of using on
the unfortunate villagers of Waziristan. Once it’s locked on to you and your coordinates are in the
system, it’s hard to get it called off. Three years ago, during his trial in Chicago, I suggested to the
defendant he’d be better off saving his gazillions in legal fees and instead climbing under the tarp in
the bed of my truck and letting me drive him over the minimally enforced Pittsburg-La Patrie border
crossing to Quebec and thence by fishing boat to a remote landing strip on Miquelon where a waiting plane
could spirit him somewhere beyond the reach of the U.S. Attorney. Estimated cost: about a thousandth of
what he’d spent on lawyers to date. P’shaw, scoffed Conrad, or ejaculations to that effect. He was not
a fugitive but an innocent man, and eventually he would be vindicated by the justice system of this great republic.

But that’s not possible – because, with a system that relies on  multiple charges and an ability to
pressure everybody else in the case to switch sides, you can win (as Conrad did) nineteen-twentieths of
the battles and still lose the war. He’s a wealthy businessman, and nobody has any sympathy for those.
But it’s even worse if you’re a nobody. A New Hampshire neighbor of mine had the misfortune to attract
the attention of federal prosecutors for one of those white-collar “crimes” no one can explain in