Ken Lay’s premature sentence: Heart attack!

Ken Lay died yesterday and I’m obliged to comment. But since my Mummy told me many years ago to never speak ill of the dead, I shall avoid being disrespectful by being brief.

In this previous article, I wrote about Lay’s criminal trial for the labyrinthine fraud he lorded over at Enron. In fact, by the time of his trial, Lay already personified egregious greed and venal corruption more than anyone else in the rogue’s gallery of corporate crooks who have fleeced investors and screwed their employees in recent years. Therefore, it came as no surprise on May 25 that, despite his religious protestations, Lay was found as guilty as sin.

Alas, instead of the legacy of philanthropic deeds and social esteem he zealously coveted, his will be the historic collapse of Enron: a collapse which caused over 20,000 people their jobs and millions of investors their shirts and, of far greater concern to Lay, which turned him into a social pariah and sullied his cultivated “good name” for posterity.

Nonetheless, even though death – in almost every case – is a worse fate than prison, I can’t help thinking that this self-righteous shyster just pulled another fast one. After all, a sudden heart attack evokes far too much sympathy and cheats Lay’s victims of the retributive justice that knowing he’s wallowing in self-pity as he rots away in prison would have guaranteed….