Peanut Company Exec Sentenced to Prison for Knowingly Selling Salmonella

A former peanut company executive was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison – the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case – for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak that killed three elderly Minnesotans.

Parnell’s trial was groundbreaking: Never before had a corporate executive been convicted of federal felony charges related to food poisoning.

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”.

Stewart Parnell and his co-defendants were never charged with killing or sickening anybody. Stewart’s brother Michael Parnell, a food broker on behalf of Peanut Corp, was sentenced to 20 years.

Two other people were also jailed for their roles in the major food scare, which triggered one of the largest recalls in American history.

Expert evidence at their trial showed tainted food led to a salmonella outbreak in 2009. “I just hope they ship you all to jail”.

A jury in Georgia convicted Parnell previous year on 72 counts of conspiracy, fraud and other federal charges, in what food safety advocates hailed as a long-awaited victory. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection shortly after it was shut down.

Parnell allowed numerous shipments of peanuts contaminated with salmonella to be delivered to customers despite the company’s own internal findings showing that its product had traces of salmonella as many as a half a dozen times in 2007 and 2008. He told Parnell: “You took my mom”. Then Samuel Lightsey, the former Blakely plant manager who was at Stewart Parnell’s side when the pair decided not to testify before Congress in the midst of the 2008-09 outbreak, also cut a deal.

While peanuts are roasted before being turned into peanut butter or peanut paste, preventing contamination of the finished product is crucial.

There were many side roads, such as Stewart Parnell’s unsuccessful attempt to put forth a attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) defense.

Sands wrote out three orders on September 18 that increased the duration of the potential sentences, such as that Stewart Parnell was “a leader or organizer of the criminal activity, and Michael Parnell was a manager or supervisor”, according to Food Safety News. Another member of the Parnell family was warned about objectionable behavior during previous court appearances.

“I am personally embarrassed, humiliated, and morally disgraced by what happened”, Stewart Parnell said on Monday, per the Associated Press. Now 10 years old, he told the judge, “I think it’s OK for (Parnell) to spend the rest of his life in prison”. A life sentence for Parnell would be the harshest sentence ever doled out. He also said that he was thinking about victims’ families daily and that he was “truly sorry” for what he did. “The Department of Justice will continue to work aggressively with its partners to ensure that the American people are protected from food that is adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and pursue any person who fails to abide by the vital food safety protections in the law”.