[QUOTE=Northern Piper]
Since he’s no longer around to defend himself upon his death, the criminal proceedings are abated, and sentence will not be passed.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve been wondering about the effect of his death on the criminal trial as well.
I’ve opened a thread in GQ.
When I first heard the story, I momentarily thought it was about Tom DeLay.
Such dissapointment! 
[QUOTE=elelle]
I’m not thinking that Ken Lay did fake his death, but, it brings up the question; in a case like this, is there a special protocol to assure that a convicted person has died? Not just the usual procedure of coroner, but an extra sign-off on that report by the judicial system. Just curious of how that works.
[/QUOTE]
Well, there was the autopsy. cnn link
Identification of bodies before autopsy can be performed by several means. In his case, visual ID was probably enough. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, him being a felon and all, they fingerprinted him…
Moving thread from IMHO to MPSIMS.