White Collar Innocence: Irrelevant in the High Stakes Risk Game

13 Pages Posted: 16 Oct 2009 Last revised: 17 Jun 2010

See all articles by Ellen S. Podgor

Ellen S. Podgor

Stetson University College of Law

Date Written: October 15, 2009

Abstract

When one thinks of “wrongful convictions and reliability in the criminal justice process” one often thinks of street crime convictions of defendants later proven innocent through DNA or other scientific evidence. But this Essay presents a new dimension to this issue - the white collar crime context. Three stories are considered here: Arthur Andersen LLP, Jamie Olis, and Jeffrey Skilling - all who proceeded to trial after criminal charges were brought against them; and contrasting these three with KPMG, Gene Foster, and Andrew Fastow, all who secured plea agreements or deferred prosecution agreements with reduced sentences and finite results. The concern here is that innocence or guilt does not always frame the judicial process in white collar cases. The risk of trial becomes so great that in order to minimize the possible consequences, innocence becomes an irrelevancy. Although the plea bargain to trial differential existed for many years in crimes outside the white collar crime context, the high sentences now being given to individuals and entities charged with white collar crimes place these crimes in comparable stead with street crimes. This gives pause to whether the next phase of wrongful convictions might move beyond street crimes into the white collar world.

Suggested Citation

Podgor, Ellen S., White Collar Innocence: Irrelevant in the High Stakes Risk Game (October 15, 2009). Chicago-Kent Law Review, Stetson University College of Law Research Paper No. 2009-30, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1489186

Ellen S. Podgor (Contact Author)

Stetson University College of Law ( email )

1401 61st Street South
Gulfport, FL 33707
United States
727 562 7348 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.stetson.edu/tmpl/faculty/memberProfile.aspx?id=88

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