Massey Coal Executives Escape Prosecution for Mine Deaths

[The Straight Story]

Massey Coal Executives Escape Prosecution for Mine Deaths

One year after the Upper Big Branch mine disaster that killed 29 workers, none of mine owner Massey Energy’s executives have faced criminal prosecution. But this only follows a long history of Massey breaking the law and staying out of jail.

Massey Energy’s coal operations have been found guilty of numerous safety violations, some of which have contributed to miners being killed on the job. But not one of the company’s executives has ever been in danger of going to jail.

“Enforcement doesn't reach into the boardroom,” Davitt McAteer, who headed the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton administration, told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Pat McGinley, a West Virginia University law professor, added, “Corporate executives and board members have the power to make compliance with the law a company priority. If rogue corporate officials were forced to spend even a few weeks in jail for condoning serious continued violations of safety or environmental laws, compliance would become a personal priority.”

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Massey_Coal_Executives_Escape_Prosecution_for_Mine_Deaths_110406

[gratuitous]

1. Incorporate, and you can murder people with impunity

Why would they reform? There's no penalty.

[fascisthunter]

2. this is why laws are meaningless to so many folks

if you can't hold the greedy sick sociopaths accountable, don't expect ordinary people to respect any law.

[Rex]

4. +1

[malaise]

5. +1,000 n/t

[cascadiance]

3. Now just watch. BP execs will use this "precedent" to get themselves let off the hook ...

... for their charges of manslaughter!

Sheesh! When is the corporate fascism going to stop!

Arrest and put in PRISON Blankenship America! Wake the F up and stop selling us out justice department!

[Donnachaidh]

6. ahh the two-tiered justice system at work

If you make enough campaign contributions and are a *business*, you can pretty much wipe your ass with the Constitution in public, in front of Congress - and then just get a stern *talking to*.

If you're joe blow, and you get caught with a blunt in your car - you're thrown up against a wall, dragged to jail, lose all your possessions, and spend years in jail.

Yeah -- that change we can believe in really works, huh?