Potential jurors in the Don Blankenship criminal trial were quizzed this week about what they know about the former Massey Energy CEO, business dealings with one of Blankenship's legal defense firms, and whether they think upper-level executives are often wrongly held responsible for the actions of their employees.
That's according to a secret transcript of Thursday's court session in which U.S. District Judge Irene Berger questioned prospective jurors as part of the process of picking 12 individuals who will decide the conspiracy and fraud case filed against Blankenship as a result of an investigation following an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 workers at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine.
One juror was dismissed after he explained to Berger that he is concerned Blankenship could be a "scapegoat" for the mine disaster.
"I'm retired military and I used to do aircraft accident investigations and stuff like that," said the juror. "And I know people in certain positions are held accountable regardless of their actual hands-on in certain situations. And then when I'm dealing with colonels and generals, a lot of times they get held responsible for stuff. I mean, we all know the rules, but they get held responsible and fired and their careers are ended a lot of times from their subordinates' actions."
That juror also said that one of Blankenship's defense firms, Spilman Thomas and Battle, was a major client of his own business.
Berger dismissed him from the juror pool. Prosecutors supported the move, though Blankenship's defense lawyers didn't think the man should be disqualified.
On Thursday, Berger had blocked the Gazette-Mail from purchasing a copy of the official transcript of Thursday's court session.
On Friday morning, a copy of that transcript was temporarily viewable on a public computer terminal in the clerk's office at the courthouse, but was later replaced with a message that said, "This image is not available for viewing by non-court users."
Jury selection resumed this morning. Dozens of potential jurors filed into the Robert C. Byrd U.S. Courthouse in Charleston. News media and other spectators were again barred from the courtroom.
Berger again kept turned off the audio for a video feed into a separate courtroom set aside for the public. This morning, Blankenship could be seen on the video feed huddling at the judge's bench during the jury questioning.
Read more at the Coal Tattoo blog.