Far too often, federal prosecutors use ambiguous laws to punish regular businesspeople for their mistakes in judgment. Fortunately, getting actual convictions requires persuading a jury.

Last week, the jury in the first criminal securities case to reach trial in the wake of the subprime mortgage meltdown refused to make scapegoats out of a pair of former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers. Instead, jurors acquitted defendants Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin of all charges related to their frantic efforts in 2007 to prevent their funds from collapsing.

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