Man Who Caused Salmonella Outbreak Gets 28 Years

Stuart Parnell, an executive with a peanut shipping company, has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in a salmonella outbreak in 2008 and 2009 that killed 9 people.

Federal prosecutors had initially sought a life sentence for Parnell for the 70-odd criminal charges he faced for his role in the deaths, according to The Washington Post. Among the plethora of charges he faced from his time as the leader of Peanut Corp. of America were knowingly shipping tainted food across state lines, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and wire fraud.

The sentencing was filled with testimony from both the families of victims and the family of Parnell. The victims urged the maximum possible sentence for Parnell's crimes, while Parnell's family members took the stand to beg the judge for mercy.

Parnell allowed numerous shipments of peanuts contaminated with salmonella to be delivered to customers despite the company's own internal findings showing that its product had traces of salmonella as many as a half a dozen times in 2007 and 2008.

Parnell was found to have allowed shipments to go out despite the fact that some crates were covered in dust and rat feces. In one case he sent out a shipment despite the fact that the results of salmonella testing were not yet even known.

When Food and Drug Administration officials descended on the plant where Parnell got his peanuts, they were met by a litany of health and sanitary violations that included mold, roaches, filthy equipment, holes big enough for rodents to gain access and the mixing of raw and cooked products.

By the time all was said and done, 714 people in dozens of states had fallen and ill and nine people had succumbed to complications from the disease.