All just for daring to upset the Elite's idea of a Burkean 'natural order' in which such concepts as 'social justice' are treated with disdain, for only the Elite know what justice is, and are uniquely qualified to dispense it...to other people, of course, not Their Own.

The district attorney's lawyer behavior is downright criminal. He encourages his witness to lie, he doesn't let them finish answering during depositions. The guy should be disbarred and serve time. This behavior is, for reason beyond me, allowed to continue.

Not being a lawyer, I did participate as an expert in about 50 cases. Most of the case were civil like my spouses one. All lawyer on both side were always looking for advantages. They never broke the law. I saw experts lying in court (quite common); I never saw lawyers lying, twisting facts and evidence a lot but they do the best to do a decent, honest work.

Appeal

Black's oral arguments were heard June 5, 2008 by a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Andrew Frey argued that Black and his co-defendants did not steal from Hollinger when they authorized individual non-competition payments. Frey asserted that the monies were "management fees" and that Hollinger International shareholders were not hurt by the payments. Appeals judge Richard Posner said, "The bulk of the evidence [in the Hollinger case] has to do with pretty naked fraud."[44] Posner was skeptical about defense arguments that Black did not obstruct justice by removing boxes from his Toronto office, commenting, "The timing was bizarre, the removal of the documents in the middle of an investigation."[45] Three weeks later, on June 25, 2008, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions[46] in a decision that called some of Black's conduct at Hollinger "ridiculous"[47] and rejected all of the arguments raised by the defense. The appellate court found that "the evidence established a conventional fraud, that is, a theft of money or other property from Hollinger by misrepresentations and misleading omissions ..." The panel affirmed the jury's findings stating that, "It is not as if Black had merely been using his power as controlling shareholder to elect a rubber-stamp board of directors or to approve a merger favorable to him at the expense of the minority shareholders ... He was acting in his capacity as the CEO of Hollinger when he ordered (Mark) Kipnis to draft the covenants not to compete and when he duped the audit committee and submitted a false 10-K."[48]

Prosecutor Eric Sussman replied to news of the initial appeal decision saying, "I think at some point in time Mr. Black needs to take a hard look in the mirror and ask who it is that really doesn't understand the conduct that took place in this case...You've got 16 people who have taken a look at the facts and the law in a very detailed and time-consuming way, and they have all reached the same conclusion, which is that he stole money from this company and he tried to obstruct the investigation."[49]

and this:

Black writes "if saintly men like Gandhi could choose to clean latrines, and Thomas More could voluntarily wear a hair shirt, this experience won't kill me." Robert Fisk, writing in The Independent says, "Now when Uncle Conrad likens himself to the assassinated Mahatma, the apostle of India, that is mere hubris. But when he compares himself to England's greatest Catholic martyr, a man of saintly honour if ruthless conviction, this is truly weird." [57]

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

If all the other inmates aren't having a bad time either.. well, ok.

Black's indictment of the prison system is presented well and clearly.