Former peanut executive Stewart Parnell was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for his role in a nationwide salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened hundreds more in 2008 and 2009.
Parnell, who for decades ran the Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America, is likely to serve only several years of that sentence. Prosecutors had argued that he deserved life in prison for his crimes. U.S. District Judge Louis Sands said such a sentence would be “inappropriate,” according to news reports from the courtroom, even as he said Parnell’s actions “were driven simply by the desire to profit and to protect profits … This is commonly and accurately referred to as greed.”
By all accounts, Monday’s sentencing hearing in a federal courthouse in Albany, Georgia, overflowed with emotion on both sides.
Families of victims poisoned by salmonella after eating products from Parnell’s company urged a judge to impose the stiffest possible sentence. Jacob Hurley, only 3 when he got seriously ill after eating peanut butter crackers, said it would be OK with him for Parnell “to spend the rest of his life in prison,” according to the Associated Press. Jeff Almer, whose 72-year-old mother died as a result of the outbreak, felt the same. “You took my mom,” he told Parnell.
Others showed up to defend Parnell’s character. A local television reporter tweeting from the courtroom said Parnell’s own mother spoke on his behalf. His daughter described him as a doting grandfather who always put others before himself. His son asked the judge to “please show my father mercy when considering his sentencing,” according to a local Fox affiliate.
Toward the end of Monday’s hearing, Parnell himself spoke in court.
“First I want to apologize to all of our consumers,” he said, according to reports from the courtroom, adding the he was “truly sorry” for the unsanitary conditions at the company’s Georgia plant that lead to the outbreak and the massive recall that followed. Parnell also addressed victims and family members of victims, saying “I think about you guys every day.”
Parnell’s attorneys said he never had intended to harm anyone by his actions, careless as they might have been. They argued that the judge factor in that lack of intent when considering his sentence.
Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler, who has followed the case closely and filed numerous suits against the company, the fact that Parnell was prosecuted at all represents a victory for consumers and should serve as a deterrent to other executives.
“Although, his sentence is less than the maximum, it is the longest sentence ever in a food poisoning case,” Marler said. “This sentence is going to send a stiff, cold wind through board rooms across the U.S.”
Michael Parnell, a former supervisor at the company and Stewart Parnell’s brother, who was convicted on fewer criminal counts, received a sentence Monday of 20 years in prison. Mary Wilkerson, a quality-control manager at the Georgia plant who was convicted of obstruction of justice, received a 5-year sentence.
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