Last week the Intelligencer carried the AP story that three state coal associations (including West Virginia's) were concerned that their CEOs could be exposed to criminal charges as a result of the Blankenship decision. From "Coal Groups Worry CEOs Are at Risk":

Coal industry groups from three states are arguing that the conviction of former coal executive Don Blankenship could unfairly expose other industry leaders to criminal conspiracy charges.

The Illinois, Ohio and West Virginia Coal Associations shared their concerns in a brief Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering Blankenship’s appeal.

We “cannot sit idly by and allow the expansion of criminal law to the point that mere involvement of company management in certain affairs can serve as a basis, in whole or in part, for criminal prosecution," they wrote.

The coal groups insist they aren’t taking sides in Blankenship’s case — that they don’t endorse or sanction his conduct, and don’t support overturning the conviction of Massey Energy’s divisive and controversial former chief executive.

Neither the original AP story nor the Intelligencer report suggested any other point-of-view.

However, the Corporate Crime Reporter recently covered the legal brief and actually included another point of view:

University of Maryland Law Professor Rena Steinzor, author of Why Not Jail?, said the coal associations’ brief was “analogous to a group of people who want to enter the business of dealing heroin on the street complaining that prosecutors are going after drug kingpins who are already in the business and therefore are chilling their business plans.”

“Coal executives have nothing to worry about if they are alert to safety standards that prevent their miners from being killed and if they make a safety culture an integral part of how they operate,” Steinzor said. “For a group of CEOs to suddenly and deliberately align themselves with Don Blankenship, widely known as the ‘dark lord of coal country,’ is extraordinarily strange because at other times they have denounced him as a rogue and said the mass killing of 29 miners could never happen at their companies.”

Interesting.