CULTURE PROBLEMS AT JUSTICE

The U.S. Department of Justice's indictment of the entire Arthur Andersen
accounting firm for the actions of a few is a worse offense against law
than the misleading accounting that hid Enron's debt.

Dramatic evidence of a deteriorating legal culture, the indictment of
Andersen contravenes two primary principles of our legal system: guilt
requires intent to commit a crime and people are responsible only for their
own acts.

The DOJ's indictment of Andersen vitiates both principles. Seven thousand
people are being held accountable for the actions of three or four. Enron's
accounting practices clearly produced misleading and irresponsible
financial reports, but it is not clear that the practices were illegal or a
criminal conspiracy. Doubts did not prevent the DOJ from rushing to make a
criminal case out of a civil one.

Proceeding along familiar lines, the DOJ has "turned" David Duncan, the
Andersen partner responsible for offloading Enron's debts onto
partnerships, into a witness against Andersen and Enron. Mr. Duncan will
now largely escape punishment. His testimony will be used to convict
whomever the DOJ has targeted.

The DOJ's disregard for law and justice is shared by the U.S. Supreme Court
and by state prosecutors. A decade ago, Charles Keating -- head of American
Continental Corp. -- was convicted in a California court for actions of
subordinates about which he knew nothing. Mr. Keating served more than four
years in prison before federal judge John G. Davies ordered him released,
declaring Keating's conviction to be a violation of mens rea (no crime
without intent) and the prohibition against ex post facto law.

Federal drug laws also endorse the punishment of innocents. Homes, boats,
cars, land and businesses can be seized if a visitor, family member,
customer, renter or trespasser brings drugs on the premises.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court extended this injustice to the residents
of public housing by upholding the "no tolerance" policy, which allows a
public housing authority to evict tenants because of drug activity by other
people.

In one case, a 76-year-old disabled man was evicted because his caretaker
brought cocaine into the apartment. In another case, an elderly woman was
evicted because her mentally disabled daughter, who lived with her, was
found in possession of cocaine in a location blocks away from the apartment.

These extraordinary injustices are tallied as victories in the war on crime.

Fighting crime with crime does not disturb the U.S. Supreme Court. Nor does
it disturb the DOJ, the American Bar Association, legislators, governors,
liberals or conservatives.

The American public has peacefully come to live under the sway of
prosecutors, who indict innocent people for crimes that have not been
committed by them or by anyone else.

The precedent-setting case was the DOJ's criminal indictment of Exxon for
an accidental oil spill. In 1989 the Valdez oil tanker ran aground off the
coast of Alaska in Prince William Sound. The DOJ indicted Exxon in addition
to the shipping company on criminal charges of dumping refuse without a
permit and killing migratory birds without a hunting license.

Everyone knew that $150 million worth of crude oil was not refuse and that
Exxon had not run the tanker aground in order to kill birds with crude oil.
The DOJ reasoned, correctly, that its vastly overdrawn indictment would
coerce Exxon into a record settlement.

The most important change in the United States during the 20th century was
the metamorphosis of the meaning of justice from protecting the innocent to
income redistribution and special privileges for preferred "victim" groups.

In the 21st century, the currency of the "justice system" is no longer
justice. U.S. prisons overflow with people coerced into plea bargains by
overdrawn and expansive indictments. The new institution of the private
prison demands ever more prisoners for a return on investment. The rising
tide of inmates is considered evidence that the United States is winning
the "war on crime."

No other nation on Earth -- not even arbitrary and tyrannical China -- has
anywhere near the same proportion of its people in prison as does the
United States. The United States will never recover from the malaise of
injustice as long as the DOJ sets the example by overdrawing indictments
and fabricating charges.