Contempt of Due Process

Jacob Sullum | February 16, 2007

What does The New York Times do when its hatred of rich, white, white-collar criminals clashes with its fondness for due process? To its credit, it runs a front-page story about Martin A. Armstrong, "a globe-trotting investment manager" who may or may not be a crook but who has definitely been screwed out of a fair trial because he has been locked up since January 2000 for contempt of court. As the Times notes, "Armstrong's years in jail for civil contempt will soon exceed the sentence of 6.5 to 8 years that he would have received if he had been convicted of all 24 criminal counts of securities fraud, commodities fraud and wire fraud."