PCA peanut broker may still get Supreme Court review; no options left for...
Oddsmakers say it is easier to get into Harvard Unversity than to get the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a petition for Writ of Certiorari. For Mary Wilkerson, who once held the title of quality assurance...
View ArticleLetter From The Editor: Truth is, Blue Bell sure made lot’s of news for case...
Opinion Not since the defunct Peanut Corporation of America’s CEO Stewart Parnell was convicted six years ago has an American food industry executive been in as much possible criminal jeopardy as...
View ArticleOnly the Parnell brothers remain in prison for PCA crimes as Kilgore walks
Daniel W. Kilgore, 52, will be home for Christmas. He might even be there for Thanksgiving. Kilgore is already out of federal prison. He’s at a half-way house run by the Residential Re-entry Management...
View ArticleAttorneys are already skirmishing over Parnell Feb. 24 hearing rules
More than two months ahead of the evidentiary hearing over Stewart Parnell’s motion to vacate his conviction and sentence, his appellate attorneys and the government are disputing the ground rules. The...
View ArticleHearings set on motions to vacate convictions and sentences of Parnell...
Brothers Stewart Parnell, 66, and Michael Parnell, 62, have, respectively, another 18 and 11 years to serve in federal prisons for their 2014 jury convictions involving Peanut Corporation of America...
View ArticleThree additional witnesses sought by Stewart Parnell for next week’s hearing
Three additional witnesses will likely testify at Stewart Parnell’s hearing next Monday to vacate his convictions and sentencing related to multiple federal felonies stemming from a deadly 2008...
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Publisher’s Platform: A Bit(e) of history of outbreak criminal prosecutions
I thought it might be helpful to see a few cases where a food borne outbreak brought the attention of the US Attorney’s office. “Forwarded is Forearmed.” Odwalla: In 1998 in what was the first...
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Year-long hunt finds almost 200 Peter Pan, Great Value victims
Close to 200 victims of the Salmonella serotype Tennessee outbreak that ended in early 2007 are in line for restitution when ConAgra Grocery Products Co. appears in federal court for sentencing. Credit...
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When food safety crisis hit, Perdue had to prepare for next one
Former Gov. Sonny Purdue is president-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of agriculture. This century’s most deadly outbreak of foodborne illness came out of the state of Georgia while secretary...
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Stewart Parnell gets 15 minutes of fame on ‘American Greed’
Federal inmate Stewart Parnell, the former chief executive and part owner of the now defunct Peanut Corporation of America, is the featured subject of a new episode of CNBC’s “American Greed.” The...
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Publisher’s Platform: And Now, We Wait
It is now in the hands of the jury. In 2009, the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) peanut plant was found to be the source of a Salmonella outbreak blamed for the deaths of nine Americans and the...
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The Human Face of the PCA Salmonella Outbreak
(Editor’s note: These are short profiles of victims of the 2008-09 Salmonella outbreak linked to Peanut Corporation of America products. The jury in the PCA criminal trial is due to resume its...
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DOJ Food-Safety Enforcement Role to Continue in 2015
When producers of such staple foods as beef, eggs, and peanut butter found they were the targets of federal criminal prosecution, it became a top food-safety story of 2014. But is it likely that...
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Defense Wants Indefinite Continuance for PCA Pre-Sentence Report Objections
The Pre-Sentence Investigative Report (PSIR) for Stewart Parnell has been submitted to the court — ordinarily a sign that sentencing in a federal criminal case is drawing near — but apparently not in...
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Sentencing Process Resumes for PCA Defendants
Requests to put more time on the clock may not be over, but Pre-Sentence Investigation Reports (PSIRs) have now been filed for all five defendants convicted in the federal government’s case against...
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Restitution Phase of PCA Criminal Case Starts With Bankruptcy History
ALBANY, GA—Defense attorneys in the restitution phase of the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) criminal prosecution focused in Wednesday on a 2009 claims adjustment agreement that a bankruptcy court...
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U.S. Probation Office: Stewart Parnell Should Spend the Rest of His Life in...
Stewart Parnell should be sentenced to life in prison, Michael Parnell to 17.5-21.8 years in prison, and Mary Wilkerson to 8-10 years in prison, according to recommendations from the U.S. Probation...
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Our Food Safety System Needs a Fully Funded FSMA
Lung cancer and a brain tumor didn’t kill my mother — Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter did. My friends and family mourned her passing, but we resolved to try to fix the system that ultimately...
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Parnell Defense Attorneys: Outbreak Victims Are Not ‘Crime Victims’
In a legal move that, if successful, could significantly reduce sentences for Stewart and Michael Parnell, defense attorneys in the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) criminal case have presented...
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PCA Does Not Reflect All in the Food Industry
Michael Parnell’s defense attorney is painting his client as a “little guy” who “lost it all.” I would dare Parnell and his defense team, and the other convicted former Peanut Corporation of America...
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Guilty Verdict Puts Food Safety Responsibility Where It Belongs
Guilty! The perpetrator of the 2008-09 Salmonella outbreak, Stewart Parnell of the Peanut Corporation of America, just received a 28-year sentence for knowingly distributing Salmonella-containing...
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Praise for an Unlikely ‘Whistleblower’
Kenneth Kendrick, missing Monday from the federal courthouse in Albany, GA, did not hear the praise that came from a witness during a pivotal day in the world of food safety. Kendrick is a former...
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Letter From the Editor: Parnell Crossed a Long-Existing Line
Since the sentencing of the Peanut Corporation of America criminal cases, some may be wondering if anything has really changed. The longest prison sentences ever handed out for food safety violations...
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ICYMI: In Case You Missed It
In case you missed it, here are some of the top food safety stories from last week: PCA Sentencing: Stewart Parnell, former CEO of the now-defunct Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), was sentenced to...
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Wilkerson Wants to Remain Free During Appeal; Ordered to Report Nov. 3
Only a quick motion for release on bond pending appeal can keep Mary Wilkerson from having to report to a federal women’s prison on Nov. 3, now less than two weeks away. Her attorney filed such a...
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Wilkerson Surrenders to Women’s Minimum-Security Prison in Florida
Mary Wilkerson, the former Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) quality assurance manager whom a jury found had lied to federal food safety investigators, surrendered Tuesday to a federal correctional...
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Publisher’s Platform: Time for More Criminal Prosecutions in Food Poisoning...
It has been a busy past several weeks for public health investigators (and lawyers) and uncomfortable (and sometimes deadly) for food poisoning victims, as well as for the management of several...
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PCA defense attorneys switch their focus to Atlanta for appeals
Thomas G. Ledford, the court appointed defense attorney for the former quality control manager at the now defunct Peanut Corporation of America, made numerous attempts to get the trial court to let his...
View ArticleStewart Parnell takes habeas corpus petition to 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta
It’s been a long haul, but Tuesday’s one-time peanut executive petitioned to vacate his conviction and sentence before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Parnell was the top...
View ArticleParnell brothers remain incarcerated but start 2024 in very different places
The year 2023 ends with brothers Stewart and Michael Parnell in very different places in their Habeas Corpus appeals at the Circuit Court in Atlanta. Stewart Parnell, who was permitted to appeal, has...
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