Conrad Black Loses Appeal.

Talkleft:


Newspaper magnate and British Baron, Lord Conrad Black, already serving his 6 1/2 year federal prison term for fraud, lost his appeal today.


The convictions relate to millions of dollars that prosecutors said were illegally pocketed from the Hollinger International newspaper empire, since renamed Sun-Times Media. The former media baron has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and has vowed to continue to fight the convictions.

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision is here (pdf.) It contains some interesting comments on "the ostrich instruction" which basically tells the jury if they find the defendant buried his head in the sand to avoid knowing what was going on, they can find him guilty.


Judge Richard Posner wrote the opinion. The trial judge was Amy St. Eve, the same judge that presided over the Tony Rezko trial.



And here is a snippet of the comment on the ostrich instruction to Black's case from the appeals decision:



You would have strongly suspected that you weren’t entitled to the money and you would therefore have a duty to investigate. By shutting your eyes you tacitly confessed your all-but-certain knowledge that you were stealing the money. United States v. Orsburn, supra,525 F.3d at 545 (“The embezzled funds were roughly twice the couple’s legitimate income, and they spent it all. Michael could hardly avoid noticing this sudden improvement in the couple’s fortunes even if he never looked at bank statements”);