Don Blankenship, far left, leads his team of lawyers across Virginia Street in Charleston Tuesday morning as they make their way to Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jurors in the Don Blankenship case deliberated for a little less than an hour Tuesday before going home after a long day in which they heard closing arguments from defense lawyers, who insisted the government hadn’t made its case against the former Massey Energy CEO, and prosecutors, who described Blankenship as having operated Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine — where 29 miners died in an April 2010 explosion — as a “lawless enterprise.”
U.S. District Judge Irene Berger sent the jury of eight women and four men home shortly before 5 p.m., with instructions that they return to the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse at 9 a.m. today to resume their consideration of the case.
Jurors in the landmark case are weighing whether Blankenship conspired to violate mine safety standards and thwart government inspectors, as well as whether he lied to securities regulators and investors about Massey’s safety practices to stop Massey’s stock price — and Blankenship’s personal wealth — from eroding following reports of a criminal probe of the mine disaster.
U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin, in the first portion of the government’s closing, told jurors that Blankenship ruled Massey by enforcing a mandate that coal production come before worker safety, encouraging the deliberate violation of safety and health laws and obstruction of federal mine inspectors, and fostering a culture that left miners afraid to speak out about the serious hazards they faced every day when they went to work.
“The defendant, Donald L. Blankenship, ran a massive, massive criminal conspiracy,” Goodwin said, pointing across the courtroom to where Blankenship sat at the defense counsel table.
Lead defense lawyer Bill Taylor responded by telling jurors that federal prosecutors might have shown that Blankenship pushed for more coal production, was tough to work for and made himself and Massey a lot of money — but that none of those things are crimes…
