A Victory against the "Honest Services" Doctrine

The first big win from SCOTUS’s “honest services” ruling. According to an AP story: “Former Westar chief executive David Wittig and his top strategy officer, Douglas Lake, were charged with conspiring to inflate their compensation from the Topeka-based company and taking steps to hide their actions. A third trial date for the men, who were forced out of Westar in late 2002, was pending.

Their first trial ended in a hung jury and a conviction in their second was overturned. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson dismissed all charges without prejudice, meaning they could be filed again.” All well and good but these men have been living with this case for eight years, which might be reckoned 20 percent of an adult American’s life. Even William D. Cohan of the NYT (and Vanity Fair and Daily Beast), who retold their tale last month in the paper, thought the case had dragged on too long.  

‍