This was the central character in that case. Note that the result will be appealed.
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The former chief executive of a company that owned a West Virginia mine where 29 miners were killed in a 2010 explosion was sentenced Wednesday to a year in federal prison.
Don Blankenship, who had been chief executive of Massey Energy, was found guilty by a jury in December on a charge of conspiracy to willfully violate mine health and safety standards, according to the Justice Department. He was sentenced one day after the sixth anniversary of the accident, which drew national attention and prompted congressional scrutiny.
The year in prison was the maximum sentence for this charge. Blankenship was also ordered to pay a $250,000 fine.
“This sentence is a victory for workers and workplace safety,” Carol A. Casto, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, said in a statement after the sentence was handed down. “It lets companies and their executives know that you can’t take chances with the lives of coal miners and get away with it.”
