Stewart Parnell, a former executive of the Peanut Corporation of America, convicted for his role in a salmonella outbreak in the USA that killed nine people, has been sentenced to 28 years in prison. He refused to testify when called before a congressional hearing, and likewise never took the witness stand during the criminal trial that led to his conviction in U.S. District Court a year ago.
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“From a food safety perspective this case has helped change the way the industry does business”, said Moore.
But the loved ones of those who died asked that Parnell pay for his deeds.
Parnell’s own family pleaded with the court, which was filled with the families of elderly people who had died of salmonella or children who had become ill, to be lenient. “I just hope they ship you all to jail”.
“I am personally embarrassed, humiliated and morally disgraced by what happened”, he said, according to the BBC.
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”.
“Although his sentence is less than the maximum, it is the longest sentence ever in a food poisoning case”, Marler said.
The outbreak in 2008 and 2009 was blamed for nine deaths and sickened hundreds more, and triggered one of the largest food recalls in USA history.
Of those victims, 8 families were represented at the sentencing. Instead, they were charged with defrauding corporate customers such as Kellogg’s, which turned the company’s peanuts and peanut butter into finished products. In all he was found guilty of 67 criminal counts.
Stewart Parnell, former CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America, and his brother, Michael Parnell, a food broker working on the company’s behalf, were convicted on federal conspiracy charges in September 2014 for knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanuts to customers.
His brother, Michael Parnell, and the plant’s former quality control manager, Mary Wilkerson, were also convicted and face lesser sentences.
The defense attorneys of Mr. Parnell and two executives also connected with the case plan to appeal what they say are overly harsh and unprecedented sentences. She was sentenced to 5 years in Federal prison.
JB: The public has heard a lot about high-profile food safety cases – tainted caramel apples, cantaloupe, cheese – many resulting in death (and many that you’ve worked on).
A 10-year-old boy still remembers the experience vividly, even though he was just 3 when he spent nearly two weeks running to the bathroom to vomit as a result of salmonella poisoning from contaminated peanut butter. But no company executives were charged in that case.
Federal investigators who checked the Georgia facility found a leaky roof, roaches and evidence of rodents, all ingredients for breeding salmonella. Other batches were never tested at all, but got shipped with fake lab records saying salmonella screenings were negative.
In the PCA outbreak, former company employees described filthy conditions at the plant in southwest Georgia.
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His Virginia-based company, which also has a factory in Georgia, has already filed for bankruptcy. “I think its OK for him to spent the rest of his life in prison”, he told the judge.
