CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER
Victims
to Speak out Against BP Plea Deal
22 Corporate Crime Reporter
5, January 31, 2008
On Monday, February 4, a federal courtroom in Houston, Texas will be packed
with lawyers.
Lawyers for BP. Lawyers for the Justice Department. And lawyers for the victims of a criminal act that killed 15 workers and injured hundreds of others.
The result of that criminal act – the explosion at a BP facility in Texas City Texas in March 2005 – caused more than just death, destruction and injury.
It caused deep emotional trauma to the friends and family of those working at the facility that fateful day.
Last year, BP plead guilty to criminal violations under the Clean Air Act and was fined $50 million.
“This is a sweetheart deal for BP,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “BP sucked a billion dollars in profits out of its runaway refinery in the 14 months preceding the blast. If it now walks away with a $50 million wrist slap, then the government has sent a clear message – that global companies can come here and break U.S. laws with impunity. This fine represents less than one day’s profits for BP.”
The lawyers for the victims will argue in court that given the enormous profit that BP extracted from the Texas City refinery, blast victims are seeking a fine of $1 billion to $2 billion.
The victims will also argue that given the long history of violating safety standards, an environmental monitor should be appointed to ensure that BP complies with the legal and regulatory terms of the plea deal.
Prosecutors and BP also have sought to waive a standard pre-sentence investigation in the case, in which the court would assess the company’s extensive criminal history.
While BP acknowledged to the court two prior criminal and civil violations, the company has been fined for wrongdoing on at least 30 occasions.
“BP is a recidivist corporate criminal,” McDonald said. “Its lengthy rap-sheet should factor into its sentence.”
But in addition to the lawyers, there will be friends and family of the victims of the blast.
They are despondent. They are angry at BP. And they want justice.
Mary Ann Duhan is the mother of Susan Taylor, who was killed in the blast.
“What I feel every day of my life is the most devastating loss a mother can feel,” Duhan wrote recently in a victims impact statement submitted last month. “The pain is so deep and widespread in my family that there really isn’t a good word for it.”
“You willfully took (my daughter) away from me. You have ruined my life because of what you have done and what you didn’t do. I don’t even know who all killed her. . . How can you live with yourself if I can’t even know how to go on without my baby?”
Susan Taylor’s father, Ronald Duhan, wrote that he believed that “there is no penalty great enough to atone for the sins of these people.”
“In our justice system, if you kill someone, you go to jail,” he wrote. “What makes these people different? They killed fifteen innocent people negligently and willfully for the almighty dollar.”
“Our family will never again be whole,”Duhan wrote. “And why? Are people’s lives worth so little to them that they don’t even consider them in their equations of profit/loss? My prayer is that the court will sentence all of them like any other common mass murderers and that God may take pity on their souls.”
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Crime Reporter
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