Although I practice law, I don't do any criminal defense work. Nevertheless, it makes sense to me that the criminal case goes away when the defendant dies. What can be done to the guy now? What is the purpose of a criminal prosecution? I thought it was to determine guilt and then administer an appropriate punishment so as to deter future criminal actions. I think Lay can be considered deterred. And you can't punish him, so what is the point? His estate can still be sued. THAT I do know something about.
The problem is that there was a matter of a criminal forfeiture associated with the conviction, in the amount of $43+ million. More than a few people are unhappy about that just "going away."
Lay had lied to the court about his assets, saying he was $-250,000 in the hole. However, there was at least $6+ million in cash and other equivalents totalling $9 million just lying around. There are other assets not quite as liquid - some RE and accounts unknown offshore.
His wife is taken care of with insurance and annuities around $30 million, so no one is taking any food out of her mouth, although she thinks she's broke.
Then there is the large debt of $20+ million owed to this round of attorneys, but I believe that was accounted for before the reported brokerage account.
As I understand it Lay had assets of approx 9 million left and about the same amount in debt. His assets were close to 400 million when all this started going bad. He lost most of it as the stock tumbled along with everyone else. There is a 10 million life insurance policy which his wife will recieve that can't be considered part of the estate or ill gotten gains. I heard all this from a c-span program that also said that Lay's death would neither hurt nor help Skilling.
That's essentially what I said. If his conviction is under appeal the appeal dies. The conviction stands, although is now moot.
The balance of my comment was directed at Skilling and whatever affect his death may have on a Skilling appeal. To me, it would seem to have no affect because an appeals court will look at the 'propriety' of the trial, not the evidence. Only should an appeals court throw out Skilling's verdict could Lay's death possibly be a factor. That's my humble opinion and I'm no attorney.