Crime Follies: Overcriminalization, Independent Prosecutors, and the Rule of Law

Abstract

This chapter from Peter W. Morgan & Glenn H. Reynolds, Appearance of Impropriety: How The Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business, and Society describes how the combination of politically inspired prosecutions and indeterminate criminal offenses has served to undermine fairness and faith in government. Excerpt: In the old days, we would refrain from ringing up the cops until after there was fairly clear evidence of a crime, such as Professor Plum lying in a pool of blood in the conservatory. Off everyone would go looking for clues, with the concrete fact of Professor Plum's corpse to focus their energies. Today, though, we frequently summon our sophisticated investigative technicians before there is evidence of a crime. We run to the phone as soon as someone suggests Colonel Mustard might have committed some impropriety. We then try to solve the mystery of whether this or some other past indiscretion of Colonel Mustard just might constitute a crime. Nowadays, it is more remarkable when the ethics crime laboratory cannot come up with a viable theory of criminality than when it can. Particular attention is paid to the False Statements Act, 18 U.S.C. 1001.