Prosecutor calls Blankenship case a landmark

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”. Massey polluted the waterways that had sustained Blankenship’s forebears, rained coal dust on the schoolyards where his miners’ children played, and subjected the men he grew up with in southern West Virginia to unsafe working conditions. Jurors did not find Blankenship guilty of a more serious conspiracy charge included in the same count that could have netted five years in prison. 29 bodies were recovered from the mine over the following eight days, and one of the two men who survived was seriously injured.

Blankenship is believed to be the highest-profile executive to be convicted in a case involving a workplace safety violation.

“The evidence was insufficient to justify conviction on any count, and the conviction of the misdemeanor in the first count will be reversed”, Taylor said. “Every time you hear ‘Massey, ‘ you should be thinking: ‘defendant’s criminal conspiracy to break the law and run coal'”. With this verdict, the state of West Virginia has set precedence and signaled that we will not allow the prioritization of production and profits over the safety of our workers. “The case should have never been brought”, Taylor said.

Clay Mullins lost his brother, Rex, in the explosion. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, said the former executive had “blood on his hands”. A prosecutor, Steven R. Ruby, had asked that Blankenship be jailed or confined to his home until sentencing.

Just a wink, he was asked? “He was only 25”.

“After a long and exhaustive trial, I am pleased the jury’s decision today has brought some measure of justice to one of the most tragic mining disasters in recent history”. “I hope everyone of those miners visits him in his dreams”.

Labor groups heralded the conviction as a strong message for corporate CEOs. “He knew that you simply could not mine the amount of coal he demanded with the limited amount of people he was willing to devote and the resources that he was willing to devote without breaking the law”.

The jury was not asked to decide directly whether Blankenship was guilty in the deaths of the 29 miners.

The conviction becomes the centerpiece of a wide-spanning investigation into Massey that began after the explosion.

Prosecutors spent much of the two-month trial casting Blankenship as intimidator who over-managed the mine’s operation and would have been well aware of cracks in safety protocols, using recorded phone calls, employee testimony and a safety memo to show the extent of negligence.