Lisa M>> A federal jury in Manhattan returned guilty verdicts on all nine
>> counts, including securities fraud, conspiracy and lying to
>> regulators; a decision that could send Ebbers, 63, to prison for the
>> rest of his life. Sentencing was set for June 13.
> Does anybody out there think he -- or others convicted in stock fraud
> -- got a raw deal?
You're kidding right? This _is_ a rhetorical question isn't it?
-Dean
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think, technically, his prison sentence could be for 85 years, if the court decided to give him (what shall I say?) full value for his dollar. Obviously he would not live long enough to fulfill his obligation. I think in actual practice the court will probably give him 5-10 years, and considering his health -- not that great -- that may be all he 'needs'. I know that in this column yesterday, or day before, I said something about him getting the essence of a life sentence, but as I think about it now, I think almost all prison sentences are far, far too long. I think an 'ideal' -- if that is a good term -- prison sentence would be one or two years, max. After all, if a person does not know what prison is about the day he enters one, I doubt he will know any more about it ten or fifteen years later. And if people are _serious_ about rehabilitation efforts, then the prisoner has to be discharged while there is still some time to engage him in rehabilitation. The speed with which our society and technical world is changing, a person getting out of prison after ten or twenty years is never going to be able to catch up. And if a person commits a crime which is *that* atrocious as to deserve a fifty or seventy year prison sentence, my suggestion would be to offer the person the option of a death penalty instead; his choice. PAT]