CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Donald L. Blankenship, whose leadership of Massey Energy Co. transformed him into one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Appalachia, was sentenced Wednesday to a year in prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety standards.
The sentencing, in U.S. District Court here, came six years and one day after an explosion tore through Massey's Upper Big Branch mine, killing 29 people. Although Blankenship was not accused of direct responsibility for the accident, the deadliest in U.S. coal mining in about 40 years, the disaster prompted the federal inquiry that led to Blankenship's indictment.
In addition to the year in jail, Blankenship was fined $250,000 and is subject to a year of supervised release.
"My main point is wanting to express sorrow to the families and everyone for what happened," Blankenship said in court before the sentencing. But he added later: "I am not guilty of a crime."
The Justice Department had urged Judge Irene C. Berger, the daughter of a coal miner, to sentence Blankenship to a year in prison, the maximum penalty. Blankenship's defense lawyers, who are planning an appeal, recommended that he be fined and placed on probation.
It was virtually unthinkable not long ago that Blankenship, whose company was central to West Virginia's coal industry, would ever stand before a judge for sentencing in this state. When a federal jury convicted Blankenship of a misdemeanor charge in December, the U.S. attorney said it was the first time such a high-ranking corporate executive had been found guilty of a workplace safety crime. (Jurors, however, dealt a substantial defeat to the Justice Department and acquitted Blankenship of three felony counts.)
In a lengthy, intricate trial last fall, prosecutors here described Blankenship, who was Massey's chief executive at the time of the explosion, as a leader with a stubborn focus on the company's financial standing. His demands, they argued, contributed to an unspoken conspiracy that company employees were to ignore safety standards and practices if they threatened profits.
Blankenship's lawyers, who did not call any witnesses as part of the defense, argued that Blankenship had been appropriately committed to safety, and that Massey was far from a criminal enterprise.
However limited the Justice Department's success was in the Blankenship case, the verdict was a landmark. But it is not yet clear whether the government will be able to replicate its success in future cases, partly because of Blankenship's unusually deep involvement in Massey's operations.
"The Justice Department will be emboldened in the sense that it's a successful prosecution, and successful prosecutions always embolden prosecutors," said David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former chief of the Justice Department's environmental crimes section. "But there are not likely to be a lot of cases where senior executives were involved to the degree that Don Blankenship was in the day-to-day running of the company."
In the days before Blankenship's sentencing, West Virginians often took a mournful tone, especially because of the anniversary of the catastrophe at Upper Big Branch. And for many, the idea that Blankenship could be punished still remains hard to comprehend.
"I never heard of anyone thinking that that could happen or would happen, because it had never happened before," said Sen. Joe Manchin III, who was governor at the time of the explosion.