Tag: criminal
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U.S. Senate to Consider Food Safety Crime Bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee has sent to the Senate a food safety crime bill (S. 216). Designed to “strengthen criminal penalties for companies that knowingly violate food safety standards and place tainted food products on the market,” the legislation would increase offenses from a misdemeanor to a felony, establish fines and give law enforcement the…
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Senate Judiciary Chair Wants Answers About Peanut Corp. Investigation
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has requested that Attorney General Eric Holder provide an update on the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the 2009 Salmonella outbreak involving contaminated peanuts from Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) facilities. As Leahy reminds Holder in his February 22, 2011, letter, the outbreak was linked to the deaths of nine people…
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DOJ Asked to Indict Peanut Company Executive for Salmonella Outbreak
According to a news source, the families of those who died or became ill from consuming Salmonella-tainted peanut products scheduled a February 11, 2011, press conference to call for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bring criminal charges against the man who headed the bankrupt Peanut Corp. of America, to which the contamination was allegedly…
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“Red Bull” Defense Joins “Twinkie” Defense in Crime Annals
According to a news source, a prosecutor in Florida appears willing to accept an insanity defense in the case of a man who murdered his father while depressed, sleep-deprived and under the purported influence of an energy drink. A psychiatrist reportedly testified during a bond reduction hearing that defendant Stephen Coffeen, who allegedly smothered his…
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Leahy Proposal Would Increase Penalties for Food Safety Violations
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has renewed his quest to increase the sentences prosecutors can seek to impose on those who knowingly sell tainted food products. He has reintroduced the Food Safety Accountability Act (S. 216) and promises to schedule hearings in the near future before the Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. While the proposal passed…
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Legal Advocacy Groups Support Kosher Meat Processing Executive
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) have reportedly filed amicus briefs with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, supporting the efforts of counsel for Sholom Rubashkin to overturn his conviction and sentence for financial fraud at his Iowa meat processing facility. The kosher plant was raided in…
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ICIJ Report: Something Smells Fishy About Bluefin Tuna Market
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) recently published the results of a seven-month foray into the Atlantic bluefin tuna trade, claiming that widespread corruption at all levels has decimated the species. Titled Looting the Seas, the exposé reflects the efforts of 12 journalists who followed the bluefin supply chain “from major fishing fleets and…
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Former Kosher Slaughterhouse Manager Claims Trial Court Participated in Immigration Raid Planning
Lawyers for Sholom Rubashkin, who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for financial fraud discovered in connection with a kosher meatpacking plant in the aftermath of a 2008 raid to find illegal immigrants, have alleged trial-court improprieties in their request for a new trial. U.S. v. Rubashkin, No. 08-1324 (N.D. Iowa, filed August…