At today's memorial for Ken Lay, Enron's former chief executive, his conviction over the collapse of the energy giant will be brushed over if mentioned at all. This may be a matter of selective memory in the Houston chapel, but in any Houston courthouse, the omission is codified into law: in Texas, the dead cannot be punished.

"Lay's death extinguished his conviction," says Joel Androphy, a legal expert who has followed the Enron trials.