I just heard Martha Stewart last public words before she is taken to be put in a cage and denied her liberty. She will be caged for allegedly making misleading statements to federal officials regarding insider trading charges that were never even filed, because they knew that they couldn’t be proven. So she’s going to jail for the crime of denying her guilt of a crime for which she was not charged. My colleague Gene Healy published a nice comment on the case back in July. (Gene is the editor of a forthcoming book from Cato, Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything.)
P.S. I would be remiss were I to fail to point out that Gene will be teaching argumentation and writing skills at this Fall’s Cato University seminar on “The Art of Persuasion: Skills for Everyone” in beautiful (and remarkably easy to get to) Quebec City. It’s going to be October 28-31 (an exceptionally beautiful time up there). If you can’t make it, be sure to recommend it to your best friends (of liberty).