No Crime But Prejudice
The Buckeye Institute is pleased to offer to you No Crime but Prejudice: Fischer Homes, th
e Immigration Fiasco and Extra-Judicial Prosecution.
This book, by noted author Jon Entine, shines a bright light on the politics of prosecution - how and why the government targets individuals and corporations, sometimes recklessly, and the enormous human toll that almost always results.
No Crime but Prejudice begins with an egregious case of prosecutorial over-zealousness, that of the federal prosecution of Cincinnati-based Fischer Homes and its founder and CEO, Henry Fischer.
As the owner of a successful home-building company operating in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Henry Fischer was targeted in 2006 by the federal government and wrongly accused of employing illegal immigrants at his construction projects.
The prosecutor's facts, as Mr. Fischer knew, were wrong. But that is small solace when facing the enormous power of the government's justice system, which thrives, in part, on intimidating the accused, even those who are innocent, to strike plea deals.
Despite facing public humiliation and the closure of his business, Mr. Fischer refused to succumb to aggressive Federal attorneys. Taking great personal risk and gambling his entire company, he fought the government and withstood the harsh strong-arm tactics of politically driven prosecutorial antagonists. And he won.
The saga of Fischer Homes and Henry Fischer is compelling and important because he challenged an unjust government prosecution - a vendetta really - and triumphed.
We have brought No Crime but Prejudice to print, in this depth, to share the news of this victory with citizens, opinion leaders and especially other business leaders who may find themselves similarly targeted and intimidated by brazen prosecutors.
At the same time we hope that No Crime but Prejudice sparks a vigorous debate about the politics of prosecution in our region and across the country. Citizens concerned about the erosion of our freedoms should be questioning - challenging even - the appropriateness of prosecutorial abuse, extrajudicial punishment and intentional character assassination as found by Jon Entine's investigation and occurring all too frequently elsewhere in the country.
The threat of capitalism on trial in America is hardly as far-fetched as it might have been a year ago. The pattern of behavior documented by No Crime but Prejudice demonstrates how power corrupts, how prosecutors today are often afforded near absolute authority, and how it is all too often targeted at business owners.
The courageous actions of Henry Fischer are a lesson to us all. While freedom is God-given, it isn't free. Keeping freedom has a cost and Henry Fischer found himself having to pay dearly on this account. His contribution to our freedom is worth all of us knowing and appreciating.
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About Jon Entine
Jon Entine, Author and Visiting Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, is founder of ESG Metrics, which advises business and NGOs on Environ
mental, Social, and Governance issues, including sustainability and executive leadership. He has written and edited five books on corporate responsibility and science and society. He is also a columnist for the British-based international magazine Ethical Corporation, and a former network TV producer for NBC News and ABC News, where he won more than 20 awards including two Emmys. Mr. Entine writes for academic and popular publications around the world and is a frequent commentator on business issues for international news outlets. He has served as a lecturer at various universities, including Columbia, Michigan, Arizona State, NYU, and most recently Miami (OH), where he was scholar-in-residence. Mr. Entine graduated from Trinity College (CT) with a degree in philosophy and earned a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in Journalism at Michigan.
