When a federal grand jury indicted him one year ago, the charges also included “lying to the Securities and Exchange Commission about the company’s safety practices and stock purchases”, as NPR’s Howard Berkes reported.
Advertisement
A measure of justice has been served through the conviction of Don Blankenship on federal charges of conspiring to violate mine safety standards.
Blankenship, 65, faces a maximum US$250,000 (RM1,052,012.5) fine and up to a year in prison.
Blankenship was the man in charge of the mine where Davis lost his brother Charles, his nephew Joshua, and his son Cory, in the 2010 explosion. After deliberations began on November 17, jurors sent a note to the judge saying they couldn’t agree on a verdict.
“Every time you hear ‘hazard elimination, ‘ you should be thinking ‘propaganda, ‘” United States attorney R. Booth Goodwin II told jurors in closing arguments.
As the CEO of Massey Energy, Blankenship oversaw the deadliest coal mining disaster in a generation.
Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy, was convicted Thursday of conspiracy to willfully violate mine health and safety standards, a us attorney said. It’s a starkly different scene from the fourth anniversary of the April 2010 blast, when some Upper Big Branch families circled outside the same courthouse, many with Blankenship’s photo on wild-west style signs that blared, “WANTED for Murder”.
But Blankenship’s team of criminal defense lawyers ultimately prevailed, arguing that the company’s safety record was overblown by the prosecution and that their client had actually requested lower-ranking executives to reduce violations and approved investments in safety.
“This is the first time that I am aware of that the chief executive officer of a major corporation has been convicted of a workplace safety crime”. Berger’s response was it had been a long trial and they should continue to deliberate.
The death toll at Upper Big Branch, about 65km south of Charleston, was the highest in a USA mine accident since 91 miners were killed in a 1972 fire at an Idaho silver mine.
Goodwin said he wasn’t disappointed with two acquittals and said he believes justice was done, citing it was a landmark day in the coal industry. Many hope this verdict will improve miners’ working conditions.
While prosecutors called 27 witnesses and presented more than 500 exhibits of evidence, the defense did not call any witnesses, including Blankenship, explaining instead that the prosecution’s witnesses proved him innocent.
The terrain shifted with Blankenship’s indictment last fall, days after authorities reached an agreement that gave immunity to Christopher L. Blanchard, the president of the Massey subsidiary that ran Upper Big Branch.
Advertisement
The second paragraph of this story has been corrected to say Blankenship was acquitted of more serious charges.
