He died without a chance to appeal. That is the fly in the ointment .
This is ridiculous! Lay was tried and convicted. If he has an appeal in process the appeal is terminated. Period. As for Skilling, if he has an appeal it should not be affected unless the appeals court overturns the verdict and a retrial is ordered. The appeals court only looks at the trial as far as how it was handled, etc. It does NOT retry anything.
The Globe & Mail, I believe, is a UK paper. What the heck do they know?
My initial response was that it couldn't be, however upon further research I discovered the law of abatement which holds that if person is convicted of a crime, but dies before the conviction is affirmed, its as if the indictment never took place. Something is wrong with this but it is settled law in the 5th Circuit. This could lead to some interesting possibilities. What if Kenny Boy knew this and took something to induce the heart attack. Or how bout his heirs knew about it and slipped him something to induce the heart attack. Not saying this took place, but it greatly increases the barriers to civil forfeitures against his heirs. And best of all it seems to really crimp the case against Skilling.