Supreme Court won’t review Massey CEO conviction
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The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review former Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship’s conviction for willfully violating U.S. mine health and safety standards.
In April 2016, Mr. Blankenship was sentenced to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for his role in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 miners in 2010. He was acquitted of all felony charges, but convicted of a misdemeanor conspiracy charge in December 2015 and received the maximum sentence and fine applicable under his conviction.
In January 2017, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, affirmed Mr. Blankenship’s conviction for conspiring to violate federal mine safety laws and regulations, which set up the certiorari petition the Supreme Court denied on Tuesday.
During his trial, more than two dozen witnesses, including coal miners who worked at Upper Big Branch, testified about unsafe working conditions at the mine, violations of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration regulations and organized efforts to obstruct and interfere with MSHA inspectors.
Abingdon, Virginia-based Alpha Natural Resources Inc., which acquired Massey Energy in 2011, eventually paid $209 million to settle its corporate criminal liability in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion, but the settlement did not bar criminal charges against individuals such as Mr. Blankenship.
Mr. Blankenship’s attorney declined to comment.
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Ex-CEO sentenced, fined for role in fatal mine explosion
Former Massey Energy Co. CEO Don Blankenship was sentenced Wednesday to a year in federal prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for his role in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 miners in 2010.
