Hightower Lowdown

Corporate executives and their lawyers like to claim that a corporation is a "person" with all of the rights of an actual human being. Yet when one of these outfits gets caught violating laws, its lawyers argue that while this entity might be fined, it can't be put in jail or given a death sentence because...well, because it's a financial structure, not a human.

Embracing this game of now-you-see-us/now-you-don't, the Bushites have devised a neat way to go soft on corporate criminals. Called "deferred prosecution agreements"--or "DPAs"--this ploy says that corporations and banks that are charged with everything from robbery to bribery can have a get-out-of-jail-free card. Monsanto, Merrill Lynch, and some 50 other corporations have recently been allowed to pay a relatively cheap fine and agree to certain internal reforms rather than be prosecuted for their crimes. Even the big mortgage hucksters who have wrecked our housing market could end up writing a check and walking away.

DPAs were originally meant to help real people (usually first offenders) get a second chance, but they've become the favorite wrist-slap of Bush prosecutors and corporate violators. They argue that full prosecution could be "a corporate death sentence" with "catastrophic collateral consequences," so these criminals shouldn't be treated like mere people.