Fastow's 6 years has a few experts scratching heads

[Judi Lynn]

Sept. 28, 2006, 12:32AM
Some shocked at sentence
Fastow's 6 years has a few experts scratching heads

By KRISTEN HAYS and TOM FOWLER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Andrew Fastow's six-year prison sentence caught many longtime observers of the case off guard this week, including a former member of the government team that negotiated his 2004 plea agreement.

Fastow had agreed to a 10-year prison sentence in the plea deal with the understanding that he would not ask for a lesser sentence later.

Yet his lawyers asked for just such a break. The government didn't object and instead stressed the critical cooperation Fastow provided in helping the government build criminal cases against former Chairman Ken Lay and former CEO Jeff Skilling.

With no dissenting opinion from prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt cut four years from Fastow's term.
(snip/...)

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4220305.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another winning decision from Ronald Reagan apointee, Judge Kenneth Hoyt:

September 2, 2003
Federal Judge Rules Part of Clinic Defense Law Unconstitutional

A federal judge recently found part of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) unconstitutional. US District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt dismissed charges against a Houston, Texas man who crashed a van through the doors of the Houston Planned Parenthood Clinic in March, according to the Houston Chronicle. Anti-abortion advocates believe the decision will allow greater access to the clinics. In light of a series of decisions upholding the FACE Act, "this decision is 180 degrees in the opposite direction. This worries me a lot," Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, told the New York Times.

Judge Hoyt ruled that the federal FACE Act went beyond Congress's constitutional duty to regulate interstate commerce, according to the Times. He based his decision on a 2000 US Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of the Violence Against Women Act that found that Congress had no authority to "regulate non-economic, violent criminal conduct based solely on that conduct's aggregate effect on interstate commerce," the Chronicle reports.

The Department of Justice announced that it would appeal the decision and defend the landmark law in court, according to the New York Times. The FACE Act prohibits not only violence against abortion providers, clinic staff, patients, and volunteers, but also threats of violence. "In light of the adverse decision in NOW v. Scheidler, FACE is needed more than ever to stem anti-abortion violence and threats of violence plaguing our nation's clinics today," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
(snip)

http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=8024

[zonkers]

1. WTF!!!(&*.!!!!! WISH I HAD BIGGER CAPS. What kind of message does this

send? Shame on that Judge. No shit this awful greedy thief he was remorseful. Who isn't when your in front of the JUdge. It should have been 10 years minimum. This stinks to hell.

RE EDITED

Where is the official outrage from the State of California... Arnolds office?

[Kagemusha]

9. Existential atheists?

I'm thinking of the main character of Camus' 'The Stranger'.

[truthisfreedom]

2. bushco. "kenny-boy lay." never forget.

our country is so corrupt now that it will never recover.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Pot smokers

get longer sentences.

The judge sounds like a real winner. Just the type of activist judge the Repugs love to bitch about.

[sweetheart]

5. Really, steal a billion, but don't inhale a flowering plant!! nt

[leesa]

4. Legislating from the bench, are we?

Republicans are so massively corrupt.

[The Stranger]

6. Unbelievable, the harm he perpetrated on so many, and he gets off with

only six years after agreeing not to ask for less than ten.

[MannyGoldstein]

7. Bonus For Success

Look, the prosecution worked, and Fastow's vigorous testimony helped. Very bad guys got convicted.

It worked.

[maxrandb]

8. Didn't the guy from World Com get 25 years?

Did he do something that was more heinous than Fastow and the Enron folks, or did he just give money to the wrong politicians?

[bedazzled]

10. judge says "he has suffered ridicule and his family has suffered enough"

in yesterday's palm beach post

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/search/content/shared-gen/ap/Finance_General/Enron_Fastow.html

steal incredible amounts of money, return a small amount of it, spend a
few years in prison, and you'll be young enough to enjoy it when you get out


it's enough to make you hurl

[Sgent]

11. How is this the Judge's fault?

According to the article, the US attorney didn't object to a reduced sentance.