Abatement ab initio (Latin for "from the beginning") is a common law legal doctrine that states that the death of a defendant who is appealing a criminal conviction extinguishes all criminal proceedings initiated against that defendant from indictment through conviction.
The former extended the doctrine to cases where certiorari was pending and not yet granted, and the latter excluded discretionary appeals.
[1] Abatement ab initio was used in federal court to overturn the conviction of Enron CEO Kenneth Lay.
[4] In instances where the doctrine is applied, a legal issue emerges concerning previous rulings or actions made.
[5][2] In 2016, when the court posthumously cleared Kenneth Lay's Enron-related fraud convictions, the compensation for defrauded victims was also lost.