BECKLEY, W.Va. — “60 Minutes” Sunday will air a segment called “King of Coal,” which takes an in-depth look at former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s misdemeanor conviction after the Upper Big Branch explosion killed 29 miners, including one whose sister told Anderson Cooper the verdict was a “perversion of justice.”
In a preview of the segment, Judy Peterson, whose brother Dean Jones died in the explosion, said, “Twenty-nine people are gone. And that’s a misdemeanor. That’s a perversion of justice.”
A federal jury found Blankenship guilty of conspiring to willfully violate mine safety laws, but did not convict him of two felony charges involving securities fraud. The December conviction was the first time a company CEO had been found guilty of a workplace safety crime, Cooper tells viewers…