Federal prosecutors in the case against former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship have begun to release exhibits introduced as evidence in the trial. Attorney Booth Goodwin and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia began uploading the exhibits Thursday to a page on the office’s website.
The exhibits entered as evidence include diagrams of coal mines, videos of mining equipment used in the process, animations of mine ventilation systems and federal Mine Safety and Health Administration standards, among others.
The release of the exhibits comes as a result of a court directive in the case of United States v. Blankenship.
The 65-year-old Blankenship is charged with conspiracy to violate federal mine safety standards as well as lying to investors about the safety record of his company to keep stock prices from falling in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, which killed 29 miners in April 2010.