Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

Re: Die before sentencing does record exist?

You're probably referring to former Enron CEO Ken Lay, who died this morning while awaiting sentencing on a variety of conspiracy and fraud counts. The answer is that his conviction stands. Sentencing is about punishment, not guilt, and Mr. Lay's guilt had already been determined by a jury.

Re: Die before sentencing does record exist?

My esteemed colleague, Mr. Hoffman, apparently is in error.

There is Fifth Circuit precedent that holds that, since Mr. Lay never got the chance to appeal, he is still presumed innocent, and although his heart no longer beats he has beaten the rap -- the conviction must be thrown out. United States v. Estate of Parsons, 314 F.3d 745, 750 (5th Cir. 2002): "[A]s part of ensuring that every defendant has an opportunity to challenge his conviction by one direct appeal, we expunge the criminal proceedings and the pending punishments attached to those proceedings if the defendant takes an appeal and dies during its pendency."

The Enron victims who would like to sue Mr. Lay's estate will now have to prove their case all over again (assuming Mr. Lay didn't hide his money) and will no longer have the "collateral estoppel" effect of his criminal conviction.

All this assumes, of course, that it was indeed Mr. Lay who was the individual found to have died of a heart attack by the Pitkin County, Colorado coroner.

Re: Die before sentencing does record exist?

I have read Mr. Stone's answer and done some follow-up research, and he is correct.

The Parsons case he cits is not quite on point because the defendant in that case died after filing an appeal whereas Lay would have had to wait until after sentencing before he could appeal. This is a minor technicality, but is worth mentioning for the benefit of others who may read this response in the future. The underlying principle is the same where the defendant dies before sentencing.

I thank Mr. Stone for his correction, and I apologize for any confusion my earlier response may have caused.