Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell listened from his courtroom seat as nine victims testified about the terror and grief caused by peanut butter traced to the company’s plant in southwest Georgia more than six years ago.
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Whatever the significance of the stiff prison sentence (and it will, of course, be appealed), perhaps the real significance of this trial and these convictions is that people – real human beings with names and job titles and moral responsibilities – were held accountable for these horrific acts. “Now I stand before you and ask for forgiveness from you and the victims”, Stewart Parnell told the court Monday before the sentence.
“I just hope they ship you all to jail”, Almer said. “I’m truly sorry for what happened”.
Judge W. Louis Sands estimated Parnell faced up to 803 years in prison for his crimes, but said a punishment that severe would have been “inappropriate”. Many observers said the sentence was designed to send a message to companies across the nation.
The outbreak in 2008 and 2009 killed nine Americans and sickened hundreds more, and triggered one of the largest food recalls in USA history.
“Given the ages of these two men, this is a life sentence”, Bondurant said. Rather, their sentences were a result of defrauding corporate customers such as Kellogg’s, which turned the company’s peanuts and peanut butter into finished products.
At trial past year, prosecutors called 45 witnesses and presented more than 1,000 documents including months of emails, lab results and financial records to make their case that Parnell knew about the contamination, covered it up and ordered PCA to continue shipments of salmonella-tainted peanut paste used to manufacture a variety of products. In all he was found guilty of 67 criminal counts. Michael Parnell received a 20-year sentence and he plant’s quality control manager, Mary Wilkerson, received five years. He explained why federal prosecutors chose not to pursue murder charges, why other CEOs implicated in deadly food outbreaks haven’t been thrown in prison, and what this case says about a current trend toward the criminalization of food production.
Though it’s still early to determine whether food safety litigation is indicative of a trend, the threat of legal action for foodborne illness cases is spooking members of the industry.
Marler, the lawyer who has represented victims of all sorts of food-borne outbreaks, said he was relieved that his clients in the PCA case are seeing justice.
One of the victims was 10-year-old Jacob Hurley, who was just 3 when he was stricken by salmonella from peanut butter crackers that left him vomiting and rushing to the toilet for almost two weeks. But no company executives were charged in that case.
A federal investigation of the plant found roaches, roof leaks and evidence of rodent infestation – all possible salmonella sources. They also uncovered emails and records showing food confirmed by lab tests to contain salmonella was shipped to customers.
He, his brother Michael, and Wilkerson were convicted in September 2014 for their roles in the outbreak linked to a peanut plant in Blakely, Georgia.
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Marler also provided coverage of civil actions, some of which his firm handled, and congressional hearings investigating the Parnells and their company.
