Bet on Black?

IT promises, even at this early date, to be the trial of the century. The international media magnate, Lord Black of Crossharbour, born Conrad Black in Canada, is on trial in Chicago for a variety of white-collar crimes from mail fraud to tax evasion relating to his management of the companies Hollinger Inc. and Hollinger International. Black had built up a media empire that included the two Telegraph papers in Britain, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, the Southam newspapers in Canada, and a North American chain of local and regional papers under the Hollinger umbrella. His board of directors included such impressive names as Henry Kissinger. He was elevated by Tony Blair to the House of Lords in 2001.

Yet if convicted in the next few weeks, Black could be sentenced to as much as 95 years in prison, without parole-and not in a country-club prison either. That would be a life sentence even if Black were not in his early sixties.

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John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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IT promises, even at this early date, to be the trial of the century. The international media magnate, Lord Black of Crossharbour, born Conrad Black in Canada, is on trial in Chicago for a variety of white-collar crimes from mail fraud to tax evasion relating to his management of the companies Hollinger Inc. and Hollinger International. Black had built up a media empire that included the two Telegraph papers in Britain, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, the Southam newspapers in Canada, and a North American chain of local and regional papers under the Hollinger umbrella. His board of directors included such impressive names as Henry Kissinger. He was elevated by Tony Blair to the House of Lords in 2001.

Yet if convicted in the next few weeks, Black could be sentenced to as much as 95 years in prison, without parole-and not in a country-club prison either. That would be a life sentence even if Black were not in his early sixties.