But without doubting for a second that Black is deserving of punishment, which I accept as meaning custodial punishment, I must remain true to my principles and declare that he has been made to suffer disproportionately for his wrongdoings.
Salut!'s more hawkish readers will denounce me afresh as a wishy-washy liberal on penal affairs, someone who opposes imprisonment for anyone, whatever they have done. That is clearly absurd. When I first criticised the prosecution recommendations, I suggested that a sentence of around 30 months would not be unreasonable.
One of my critics, Bill Taylor, defended the clamour for a more preposterous outcome on the grounds that this was simply what prosecutors did, that it was all a sort of game of bargaining and bluster not to be taken too seriously. He confidently predicted a period of imprisonment less severe than what I had accepted would be fair.
In our irreverent little office sweepstake far from the Chicago courtroom, the bids among hacks who, in many cases, had once been employed by Black put the likely outcome at between 18 months and 12 years. My own 10 dirhams went on eight years, not as a personal preference but in acknowledgement of the tabloid streak that guides American sentencing policy.
Produce to me little old ladies whose savings were plundered by anything Black did, as opposed to rich folk being made a little less rich, and I may revise my second guessing of Judge Amy St Eve's findings. Yes, he has shown no remorse - though I have never accepted the logic of ritually demanding that defendants who protest their innocence should be rewarded if, when convicted, they suddenly change tack and pretend to be sorry. A more measured jurisdiction would respond to Black's stubborn refusal to accept guilt by adding a few months, not many years, to his term.
I won't shed too many tears for Black. One way or the other, he will probably remain well-to-do. Despite the decision to aggravate his punishment by denying him lower security incarceration (because he isn't an American citizen would you believe), he is robust enough, even at 63, to weather the minimum of five years behind bars before parole becomes a possibility.
There are many people in the world, indeed in some cases rotting in American jails, for whom I feel much more sympathy tonight.
And there are also much nastier criminals who have been treated rather more benevolently. I once saw a gynaecologist get roughly the same sentence as Black for drugging and molesting or raping several of his patients. I have seen killers, knife attackers and serious drug dealers escape with far less.
Black is a pompous, arrogant businessman who deserves to pay for his greed and breach of trust.
Forgive me if I have sufficient sense of proportion to deplore the vindictiveness of those who wanted him to be made to pay an even greater price, or the chorus of guffawing which I expect to greet the completion of his downfall.
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