Lawyers for Don Blankenship will get three more weeks to prepare an appeal of the former Massey Energy CEO's conviction for conspiring to violate mine safety and health standards, a federal court has ruled.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Blankenship's legal team a requested extension of time to file their initial legal brief. That brief is now due on June 20. It had been due on May 31, under a previous scheduling order issued by the Richmond-based court.
Lawyers for Blankenship had asked for the additional time, and said that federal prosecutors did not oppose the delay.
"This appeal presents the exceptional circumstances of a trial that lasted nearly nine weeks from jury selection to verdict and a transcript that spans more than 6,000 pages," Blankenship's lawyers said. "A trial of that length inherently involves an unusually large number of disputed rulings, and appellant expects to raise more issues in his brief than would be presented in a typical appeal. The parties also will need to present more than the usual amount of factual and procedural background information."
Blankenship's lawyers requested additional time in a motion filed on May 19. The 4th Circuit ruled the same day.
Under the new schedule, the government's response brief will be due on Aug. 1 and Blankenship's reply by Aug. 22.
In the same order, the 4th Circuit did not grant - or even mention - a request from Blankenship's legal team to extend the length of their briefs in the case. Blankenship's lawyers said that the prosecutors had agreed to increase the limits of length for briefs by 50 percent, so that the initial brief from the Blankenship team would be 21,000 words, instead of 14,000 words.
Blankenship will remain in prison at the Taft Correctional Institution in California while the appeal is being decided. The former Massey CEO surrendered himself to authorities there on May 12, after he was convicted for conspiring to violate mine safety and health standards at the Upper Big Branch Mine, where 29 miners died in an April 2010 explosion.
The 4th Circuit has not yet scheduled an oral argument in Blankenship's appeal.
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1702 or follow @kenwardjr on Twitter.