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If you have been convicted
of a felony, then it says something bad about you.
And if you have been convicted
of a felony, then people generally don't want anything to do
with you.
So, our advice -- don't get
convicted of a felony.
But let's say we had a system
where you could commit a felony, and not be convicted of a felony.
Let's say you rob a bank, and
get caught robbing the bank.
And the prosecutor says to
you -- okay, we can do this two ways.
You can plead guilty to the
crime. And be sentenced to prison. And you would have been convicted
of a felony.
And that felony will follow
you the rest of your life.
Or you can just agree to go
to prison, and agree to pay a fine -- and we won't convict you
of the felony.
So, when you get out of prison,
there won't be that black mark on your record.
And when you are asked throughout
your life -- have you ever been convicted of a felony? -- you
can tell the truth and say -- no.
The prosecutor gets everything
the prosecutor could get with a conviction -- restitution, prison,
a fine.
Except for the conviction.
Prosecutors would never accept
such a system for human being criminals.
Because prosecutors believe
they represent the public.
And in cases of serious crimes,
they must defend the public's right to get justice.
And justice demands not only
punishment but deterrence.
And deterrence demands of us
that we remember for our entire lives that rules exist for a
reason.
Society says, if you commit
a serious crime, the conviction will follow you your whole life.
Those are the rules for human
beings who commit serious crimes.
For corporate criminals, the
rules have changed, in just the past couple of years.
The change is this -- a major
U.S. corporation that commits a felony no longer has to plead
guilty to a felony.
Instead, federal prosecutors
will offer -- and the corporation will accept -- a deferred prosecution
or non prosecution agreement.
And it is difficult to find
a prosecutor, defense attorney, academic or politician who is
not supportive of this trend.
They argue this -- a prosecutor
gets everything they could get from a criminal prosecution --
fines, restitution, changing in corporate structure, cooperation
against the guilty individuals -- except for the conviction.
And a conviction would threaten
innocent third parties -- workers and investors. See Arthur Andersen.
So, with deferred and non prosecution
agreements, you get the best of both worlds -- change within
the corporation, fines paid to the government, restitution to
the victim -- and few if any collateral consequences against
innocent third parties.
This sea change has largely
gone unnoticed in the mainstream media.
It used to be that a corporation
caught committing a serious crime would be convicted of committing
a serious crime.
No longer.
Under the new system, outside
of a few antitrust and environmental crimes, it is highly unlikely
that a major corporate criminal will be convicted of a crime
in the United States.
Corporations too do not like
to answer "yes" to the question -- have you ever been
convicted of a felony?
They could be barred from government
contracts, from the various markets. Consumers, investors and
workers may shun them.
Had corporations introduced
legislation in Congress to repeal corporate criminal liability,
there would have been an uproar in the press.
But they have effectively repealed
corporate criminal liability for big business -- through prosecutorial
discretion. It is unclear what the effects of this effective
repeal will be.
But to those who defend the
trend, they must answer this question -- why the double standard?
Why not offer deferred prosecution
and non prosecution deals to all major individual felons -- drug
pushers, money launderers and muggers alike?
After all, you get all of the
benefits of a criminal prosecution, without the collateral consequences.
Prison, fines, restitution.
It's just that, when you go
to answer -- have you ever been convicted of a felony? -- then
all of us -- individuals and corporations alike -- will be able
to answer "no" with a clear conscience.
Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Multinational
Monitor, and co-director of Essential Action, a corporate
accountability group. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators:
The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe,
Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).
(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert
Weissman
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