WASHINGTON – The United State Supreme Court has said it won’t review the conviction of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.
Blankenship was found guilty in 2015 of a misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate mine safety standards following the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 workers. Blankenship was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $250,000.
Lower courts have rejected Blankenship’s attempts to get his conviction tossed out. In 2019, a federal magistrate judge did recommend the conviction be thrown out, saying Blankenship’s rights were violated because some evidence was turned over by prosecutors. But a federal judge later ruled that “resulted in no prejudice” toward Blankenship.
In December, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals also ruled against Blankenship, saying materials that were not shared during discovery before the trial would not have changed the outcome of the case. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger previously had made the same ruling.
Blankenship’s appeal was based on interviews of Massey employees that hadn’t been disclosed as evidence before the trial. He also cited documents that he says showed intentional bias against him by federal regulators.
In a statement to The West Virginia Record, Blankenship maintained his innocence.
“Over the past twelve and one half years, United States government officials have caused the deaths of 29 miners and repeatedly lied about it, conducted a corrupt prosecution of me which they are fully aware was intentionally corrupt and sabotaged a federal election with the assistance of the media,” he said. “My civil efforts have given the United States judiciary multiple opportunities to correct these tyrannical acts. But they have chosen not to do so. There is no reason to believe they will ever do so.
“Still my intent and hope is that I can give the judiciary two more opportunities to properly address the election sabotage. But no one should expect that they will.
“The American judiciary, the Department of Justice, the Congress, and the American media make up a corrupt government. They represent the tyrants which the Founders hoped the Constitution would protect Americans from but does not.
“The books I hope to write and publish next year will lay open what kind of people our country is governed by and how the American media is nothing more than the government’s public relations department.
“In closing, it feels good to do the right thing even though it is expensive in many ways.”
Blankenship has sued many members of the media and media outlets as well as some prominent Republicans over an alleged smear campaign when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2018. He also ran for president in 2020 as a member of the Constitution Party.