The former CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, has been convicted in a West Virginia Federal District Court of conspiring to break mine safety regulations. He also was cleared of fraud charges for misleading regulators and investigators about the state of safety measures in the company’s mines, according to a report from Politico. An explosion at Massey’s Big Branch Mine killed 29 miners in April of 2010.
Alpha Natural Resources, itself now in bankruptcy, bought Massey in 2011 and paid a total of $46.5 million to survivors and miners injured in the blast. At the time, a miners union official said, “Until someone goes to jail, there will be no justice done here.” That day may just have gotten nearer.
Blankenship’s jury trial began about two months ago and the jury twice said that it was deadlocked, most recently on Tuesday. After first stating on November 19 that it could not agree on a verdict, the jury was urged by Judge Irene Berger to return to its deliberations, but did not encourage the jury to return with a verdict, according to a report at The New York Times. Deliberations resumed Wednesday after the jury said Tuesday that it was deadlocked.
The case marks the first time that a coal company chief has been convicted of any crime arising from the death of a worker in an industry where the shadow of death hangs over the miners every day of their working lives.
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