Whenever an official or a judge or a prosecutor proclaims lofty sentiments in high dudgeon, it's valuable to remain alert to incongruities. Is it true, Judge Amy, that in our country there is "equal justice under the law?" Let's examine the record in this case.

Was there equal justice for Conrad Black and for his accusers? Any of the endless stream of "professionals" who proclaimed their innocence by declaring, "I am not a criminal: I am unprofessional, incompetent, and dishonest, I charged enormous sums and did no meaningful work, I did not contribute even a token effort to my job. I bilked Conrad, it's true. I did bill Black for services that I never rendered. All that I will gladly admit to. Now, if you Mr. Prosecutor are claiming that I approved criminal behavior, and that I must go to jail if I assert I discharged my duties honestly, well then, I hereby declare myself to be a fraud and a cheat, because I want to stay out of jail. Now, what do you want me to say about Conrad Black?"

"Equal" justice? In what sense? Our society did away with torture as a means of extracting confessions long ago because, issues of humanity and decency aside, men under torture will admit to anything. Well, men threatened with prison will say anything as well, as this trial demonstrates. Only the handful of men who refused to admit their guilt were punished: everyone else craven enough to be "reasonable" and to say anything the government asked them to say, walked. Is this "equal justice under the law"? We're not allowed to "bribe" witnesses…that would be corrupt: but we are allowed to threaten witnesses with prison in exchange for their testimony in support of what we want to hear, and that is just "the process".

I am ashamed of my country and I am disgusted with everyone who contributed to this outcome. What is so dispiriting and wearying about it all is knowing that it's not over, and that what goes around, however slowly, however patiently, inevitably comes around. A huge ball has been set rolling that will crush the participants in this injustice one by one, but when the obvious and inevitable happens, the participants will not even be aware that what crushed them was unloosed from its moorings by their own actions long ago. Now, for Black, everything is already smashed. A great company has been gutted, fine men have been ruined, cowardly men (and women) have perjured and disgraced themselves, prosecutors have abused the trust placed in them and we are to conclude that "In the United States, Mr Black, there is equal justice under the law." Those who participated in this travesty may be proud of themselves, or they may at least heave a sigh of relief at having dodged a bullet, but they're all mistaken; however much they may want to believe that this affair has concluded, it hasn't. In the double-entry bookeeping we call life, there are still accounts payable and receivable that will be traced back to this affair, and the Great Accountant has gobs of time, and a set of books that these prosecutors can only dream of. This was all so unnecessary.

It is certainly true that, whether or not you regard the pressures put on the Hollinger Audit Committee, the auditors et al as the "suborning of perjury" (as Conrad Black does), a system in which all the other players are offered real and powerful inducements to sign on to the prosecution's narrative strikes at the very heart of "equal" justice.