Prof Mike Redmayne, a criminal law expert at the London School of Economics (LSE), told BBC News that "trying a dead person would make as much sense as trying a horse".
But broadcasters still carry political weight, and many members of Congress fear them, so I found myself on the witness list this morning addressing why this idea makes as much sense as requiring every car be led by a horse.
The answers may determine which estate-planning techniques make the most sense for a family to use, says Patrick Ungashick, president of White Horse Advisors, an Atlanta financial-advisory firm that specializes in small businesses.
When engine powered vehicles first started out it made some sort of sense to compare their output to something that people generally knew: the output of a horse.