Conrad Black resentencing hearing Friday
After being free on bond for nearly a year, former press magnate Conrad Black will be back in a Chicago courtroom Friday for his resentencing hearing. He will appear in front of U.S. Justice Amy St. Eve, who could send him back to jail to finish all or part of his sentence — or not.
After being free on bond for nearly a year, former press magnate Conrad Black will be back in a Chicago courtroom Friday for his resentencing hearing. He will appear in front of U.S. Justice Amy St. Eve, who could send him back to jail to finish all or part of his sentence — or not.
St. Eve is the same judge who sentenced Black to serve 6 1/2 years in jail for three fraud convictions and one for obstruction of justice. He was freed on bond last summer; an appeals court reversed two convictions, while upholding two others.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal of the remaining convictions in May, but there is speculation that St. Eve may grant him time served on those counts — meaning Black won’t be cleared of the charges, but he won’t be sent back to jail, either.
According to a story by the CBC, the U.S. attorney thinks Black’s original sentence should be reimposed and has filed documents from prison workers saying Black wasn’t exactly the model prisoner he’s been portrayed as by defence lawyers.
In those documents, reports the CBC, one unit manager said Black demanded special treatment and gathered a team of inmates to act as servants. In addition, a prison education specialist, who surprised Black when he was acting as a tutor, said he was haughty.
Black has served 29 months of his original sentence.
In an email to The Globe and Mail, he said:
“If I am sent back, it will not be for very long. I do feel that I will ultimately win the battle, as the poverty of the government’s case is clear and we got rid of their [fraud] statute. We took down all 17 of their counts and two were revived by a real exercise in gymnastics by the appeal panel chairman.”
Adding:
“I live to fight another day and rebuild [my] career, all of which is unusual when someone is attacked as violently by the U.S. government as I have been. I won’t be surprised by much and am ready for anything, and am hopeful.”
