Judge dismisses 4 counts against former Enron executives News
Judge dismisses 4 counts against former Enron executives

[JURIST] A federal judge Tuesday dismissed three counts against former Enron [corporate website; JURIST news archive] CEO Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profile] and one count against company founder Kenneth Lay [Houston Chronicle profile], shortly after the prosecution rested in the fraud and conspiracy case [indictment, PDF; DOJ Enron trial materials] against the pair. According to Skilling's attorney, US District Judge Sim Lake dismissed one count of wire fraud and two counts of securities fraud against Skilling, giving him 28 remaining counts, and also dropped one securities fraud count against Lay, leaving him with six counts. The dismissed charges involve crimes that allegedly occurred in the first quarter of 2000, for which prosecutors did not present evidence. AP has more.

Prosecutors Tuesday ended nearly nine weeks of testimony including that of 13 former executives, some of whom have already pleaded guilty or settled the charges against them. The government used tapes of conference calls with Wall Street analysts, videos of employee meetings, and testimony by witnesses to argue that Skilling and Lay continually lied about the financial stability of the fallen company. The defense is scheduled to begin its case on Monday and both Skilling and Lay, who have denied any wrongdoing, are expected to testify. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.