A former executive of a peanut company receives a 28-year sentence over a deadly outbreak of Salmonella. Stewart Parnell was found guilty of knowingly shipping out contaminated food that poisoned hundreds and killed nine of their customers.
He once boasted that their products are the finest and manufactured in best quality assurance. However, the verdict on Monday left him to spend the remaining years of his life in prison. His brother, Michael Parnell received 20 years and the factory's quality assurance manager, Mary Wilkerson received five years, CNN reports.
"Honestly, I think the fact that he was prosecuted at all is a victory for consumers," Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who represented several of the victims in the PCA outbreak told CNN. Parnell was to face 803 years in prison for all the cases against him but even if the sentence fell short of the maximum, they believe they won the battle.
"Although his sentence is less than the maximum, it is the longest sentence ever in a food poisoning case. This sentence is going to send a stiff, cold wind through board rooms across the U.S.," he added.
Parnell was charged of 72 counts of fraud, conspiracy and the introduction of adulterated food into interstate commerce when he continued to ship Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter and hid the evidence. This has been the toughest punishment a producer received over a food contamination case in United States' history.
The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traced the outbreak and found out that it was linked to Parnell's company. The national salmonella outbreak had killed nine and downed more than 700 people in all 46 states from 2008 to 2009 making it the worse Salmonella outbreak in the country, USA Today reports.
According to Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, this groundbreaking sentence would make food companies think twice before engaging in wrongful acts. Food safety is always the first and utmost concern of food companies but unfortunately, millions are still affected by food-borne illnesses in the country.