U.S. DOJ - Bunch of Indian Givers

The U.S. Supreme Court just allowed the DOJ to indict a company (for anti-trust reasons) despite having already granted it amnesty. Awesome.

Arlington, Virginia – The U.S. Supreme Court today denied a petition filed by Stolt-Nielsen S.A. seeking review of a March decision by a federal appeals court that permitted the U.S. Justice Department to indict the company and two of its executives on criminal antitrust charges, notwithstanding an earlier agreement granting Stolt-Nielsen amnesty from prosecution. The Court’s decision forces Stolt-Nielsen to defend itself in a criminal trial before a federal district court in Philadelphia.

In 2005, that same Philadelphia court found Stolt-Nielsen had not violated the agreement, as the DOJ claimed, and issued an injunction to prevent the indictment of the company and its executives. But the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia, overturned this injunction, saying the courts could not consider the validity of the amnesty agreement until after indictments were issued.

Wow, considering all the inherent advantages that Prosecutors have at trial - and especially Federal Prosecutors - I can't help but think that they're excited about being able to lie at every stage of the game; hell they can even lie in writing now.

This whole system needs to be reworked. Prosecutors simply have too much power and too many of them take positions that are in the interests of noone - let alone the interests of justice.

Oh yeah, link via To The People - which remains a kick-ass blog.