In China they would have been executed

[Bob]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/peanut-plan ... -outbreak/

Peanut plant owner convicted in deadly salmonella outbreak

ALBANY, Ga. - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 714 people in 46 states were infected and nine people died - three in Minnesota, two in Ohio, two in Virginia, one in Idaho and one in North Carolina.

A federal jury convicted the owner of a peanut plant and two others Friday in connection with a salmonella outbreak that prompted one of the largest U.S. food recalls ever, sickened hundreds across the country and was linked to several deaths.

Experts say the seven-week trial in Albany, Georgia, marked the first time corporate executives and plant workers were tried in a food poisoning case.

In this March 12, 2009 file photo, Peanut Corporation of America's president Stewart Parnell, arrives at United States Federal Court in Lynchburg, Va./ AP

Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell was convicted on numerous counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice related to shipping tainted peanut butter to customers and faking results of lab tests intended to screen for salmonella. His brother, Michael Parnell, was also found guilty on multiple charges related to the false lab results, but was acquitted of actually shipping salmonella-tainted food.

The jury also found Mary Wilkerson, the plant's quality assurance manager, guilty of obstruction of justice for hiding information about the plant's salmonella problems from investigator. But Wilkerson was acquitted on one of two obstruction counts she faced.

All three will be sentenced at a later date. Prosecutor Alan Dasher told the judge the Parnell brothers will likely face prison sentences "well in excess of 10 years," and noted it's possible the middle-aged brothers could remain imprisoned for the rest of their lives. For that reason, he asked the judge to have the Parnells jailed pending sentencing.

"The government's primary concern is about flight risk," Dasher said.

All three defendants have remained free throughout the course of the trial. There was no request to jail Wilkerson before she's sentenced. The judge planned to hear from defense attorneys on the issue later Friday.

Prosecutors accused the Parnell brothers of shipping tainted peanuts and peanut butter five years ago and covering up lab tests showing positive results for salmonella. Peanut Corporation's products were used as ingredients in crackers and other snacks.

The company's plant in Blakely was shut down after being identified as the origin point of the salmonella outbreak in 2009. Peanut Corporation has since gone bankrupt. Federal inspectors also found roof leaks, evidence of bugs and rodents, and a peanut roaster that workers failed to ensure was heated to the proper temperature to kill salmonella. Investigators say they also uncovered a system the plant used to fake microbiological test results required by customers so the company could conceal positive lab tests for salmonella contamination.

Michael Parnell was in charge of selling tanker trucks filled with peanut paste to Kellogg's, which required 40,000 pounds of paste from Peanut Corporation twice a week. Prosecutors said the Parnell brothers used fake lab results so that wait times for real tests wouldn't slow down their hectic shipping schedule.

After being told a shipment faced delay while waiting on lab results, Stewart Parnell wrote an email referenced several times by prosecutors in the case that read: "Just ship it. I cannot afford to (lose) another customer."

Stacks of emails, shipping records, lab test reports and other documents were introduced as evidence by prosecutors. Two former plant managers - Sammy Lightsey and Danny Kilgore - testified against their former boss and his co-defendants as part of a plea deal reached with prosecutors.

Lightsey testified that he once confronted Michael Parnell about the fake lab tests but allowed the practice to continue after he was told to back down.

"In my mind, I wasn't intentionally hurting anyone," Lightsey testified last month.

Stewart Parnell's lawyers insisted he was unaware of the scale of the Georgia plant's salmonella problem as he tried to manage the company from his home office in Virginia. And attorneys for Michael Parnell noted he didn't work for Peanut Corporation and said he should be considered a customer rather than a conspirator, a middle-man who unwittingly bought tainted peanut paste for Kellogg's. Wilkerson's attorney insisted she cooperated with authorities as best she could.

[Dajenarit]

Not deserving of death but definitely jail.

[Michael]

Occasionally higher ups in China are executed. I don't think it really has any positive effect on anything, nor does it seem to be a deterrent in China against corruption at any level as far as one can tell by the effect on the general populace. Perhaps behind closed doors they are a bit more cautious, but you can also find examples everywhere of the opposite attitude at provincial levels with outrageous spending and obvious corruption.

Recent survey showed what a lot of us have observed in the past 10 years, that Chinese with money are leaving, many of them for the USA. Survey said 47% of Chinese with over a million bucks plan to leave the country. USA and India had the lowest figures at 6% and 5%. Enthusiasm counts and there ain't much over here where some higher ups get put to death, lol.

[Bao]

In China they would have been executed? It depends on if you have enough money to bribe the judge or if someone even higher up needs a scapegoat who takes the blame.

[Dajenarit]

Our higher ups don't even see a trial half the time. That's the problem. It should be the more power and responsibility that you take for your self the harsher the punishment should be for a fuck up . These higher up's a lot of the time literally have the power of life and death over the general population with the decisions and policies they enact. I'm not advocating the death penalty but it'll be a fat chance in hell for international level politicians especially American ones to even see a courtroom, let alone a grand jury indictment, let alone any significant jail-time or punishment that isn't a slap on the wrist. Shit, half of the time their crimes don't even get basic media coverage in our country. If that don't work they always have a presidential pardon to look forward to if they were particularly useful to the ''elite''.