Republican-appointed judges take care of their own

U.S. District Court Judge Sim Lake, a Reagan apppointee, has decided that Ken Lay's death makes historical fact irrelevant:

Judge Simeon T. Lake III ruled that the conviction must be voided because Mr. Lay cannot pursue an appeal his guilty verdict.

The decision, which had been expected, prevents the government from trying to seize more than $43.5 million from Mr. Lay’s estate that prosecutors claimed he stole from Enron before it collapsed in 2001.

[snip]

In his 13-page decision, Judge Lake cited established case law that required revocation of convictions if defendants die without opportunity to appeal. The Justice Department had asked the judge to delay ruling until Congress had time to pass legislation that would have retroactively allowed Mr. Lay’s conviction to stand. But lawmakers recessed before considering the matter.

Tuesday’s decision will make it harder for former Enron employees and shareholders to lay claim to the millions in Mr. Lay’s estate because they cannot point to his criminal conviction as proof of wrongdoing.

Do you believe that Ken Lay conveniently died of a heart attack? I don't. In fact, I suspect he's holed up at that nice little 98,000+ -acre spread in Paraguay that George W. Bush has recently purchased, perhaps as an escape from a war crimes trial once he's no longer under the protection of Republican Congressional thugs.