Outlawing Corporate Prosecution Deals When People Have Died

Authors

Peter Reilly, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2023

Journal Title

Arizona State Law Journal

ISSN

0164-4297

Abstract

Two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashes, occurring less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, resulted in 346 deaths—possibly the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) used an alternative dispute resolution tool called a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) to resolve criminal charges against Boeing and to immunize the company’s senior-level managers from prosecution. In the end, the company admitted to engaging in the criminal behavior, paid a monetary fine, and agreed to cooperate fully with the government—meaning there would be no courtroom trial, no formal adjudication of guilt, and no possibility of jail time or other serious punishment for wrongdoers. DOJ also decided it would not appoint an independent monitor to ensure Boeing’s compliance with terms of the DPA agreement. These results are profoundly unjust. In response, the United States Congress should immediately outlaw the use of DPAs in addressing federal allegations of corporate misconduct when the wrongdoing leads to one or more human fatalities. To date, Congress has failed to draw any boundaries limiting DOJ’s use of DPAs as a tool in resolving allegations of corporate malfeasance. This Article argues that banning DPAs when there is loss of human life is a legal and moral imperative—a line both reasonable and necessary for Congress to draw, even if legislators wish to continue exploring additional ways of reforming the DPA legal land-scape. The Article concludes by proposing specific legislation drawing the boundary needed to address the current problem, and by engaging in a thought exercise, hypothesizing and analyzing how the Boeing case might have turned out if the legislative proposal had been enacted into law before the disastrous airplane crashes occurred.

First Page

1351

Last Page

1394

Num Pages

44

Volume Number

55

Issue Number

4

Publisher

Arizona State University College of Law

Recommended Citation

Peter Reilly, Outlawing Corporate Prosecution Deals When People Have Died, 55 Ariz. St. L.J. 1351 (2023).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/2104

File Type

PDF