5 Feet of Fury

Robert Fulford on Conrad Black

“Could it really be true? Could so much talent, intelligence and energy end up in a Chicago courtroom, surrounded by a fog of pathos? Had the most remarkable, confident and versatile Canadian of his generation somehow put himself in a position where he could be broken on the wheel of American justice? How could Conrad Black, of all people, have let this happen?

(…)

“Yesterday, hoping to increase the length of the jail sentence, a prosecutor read aloud one of Lord Black’s glib e-mails. It had nothing to do with the crimes for which he was being sentenced and the judge wouldn’t have been fooled. But it must have been satisfying, just to drag out a little longer the pleasure of sending away someone so brilliant and arrogant…”