Three extra witnesses will in all probability testify at Stewart Parnell’s listening to subsequent Monday to vacate his convictions and sentencing connected to a lot of federal felonies stemming from a lethal 2008 Salmonella outbreak.
The requested extra witnesses are: Denise de la Rue, a trial consultant, and strategist; James “Jay” Strother, peanut dealer with James Strother and Company LLC; and John T. Powell, govt director for the American Peanut Shellers Affiliation.
Amy Levin Weil of Atlanta, and Amy Lee Copeland of Savannah, attorneys representing Parnell within the Motion 2255 listening to, said their “intense preparation” led them to the three extra witnesses “to give testimony in enhance of the petition” to vacate.
Parnell’s fashioned be aware list submitted on Could per chance also 3 contained the names of 4 attorneys who defended him in his 2014 jury trial — E. Scott Austin, Thomas J. Bondurant, Justin Luger and Ken Hodges.
The court is permitting Bondurant to testify by video convention thanks to health concerns. Bondurant, Austin and Luger from the Gentry Locke laws firm in Roanoke supplied the core of Parnell’s protection, at the side of Hodges, then an Atlanta approved legitimate.
Lugar is now an assistant U.S. Attorney for Virginia, and Hodges is a mediate on the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Magistrate Bear Thomas Q. Langstaff has ordered the govt. to answer to Parnell’s circulation so that you just can add witnesses by shut of commercial as of late (Could per chance also 18). Langstaff is presiding over the Stewart Parnell listening to that begins on Could per chance also 24 and a 2d listening to for his brother Michael Parnell that begins on Could per chance also 27.
Weil and Copeland affirm the three extra witnesses they’ve identified “will provide serious testimony” to enhance Stewart Parnell’s circulation to vacate. In court paperwork, they are saying de la Rue “has no longer been engaged,” and Strother and Powell weren’t identified ahead of Could per chance also 3.
Parnell’s attorneys argue that at the side of three extra witnesses 10 days ahead of the listening to is an cheap quiz.
Parnell’s attorneys own obtained the mediate’s permission for procure entry to to voir dire transcripts from the 2014 jury need in diversified pre-listening to action. That permission was first granted to Michael Parnell’s approved legitimate to be used in his listening to subsequent week.
The attorneys own agreed to abolish all copies of the jury need lawsuits when the Motion 2255 lawsuits are total.
Both hearings are being held subsequent week at the federal courthouse in Albany, GA.
A jury in 2014 in that identical courthouse convicted the Parnell brothers of a lot of federal felonies stemming from the lethal 2008 multistate Salmonella outbreak.
A Blakely, GA, peanut processing plant owned and operated by the now-defunct Peanut Corporation of The US was the source of the 46-declare outbreak ensuing in a total bunch of ailments and 9 deaths.
Stewart Parnell at the time was PCA’s chief govt, and Michael Parnell was his peanut dealer brother.
They’re tough their incarceration after serving about six years of the sentences they obtained in 2015 — 28 years for Stewart and 20 years for Michael.
If one or each and every brothers can procure a “tall exhibiting of the denial of a constitutional perfect at subsequent week’s hearings,” they’d merely breeze free.
Stewart Parnell, 66, and Michael Parnell, 62, are no longer at the moment within the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, in all probability on myth of they are in transit by federal Marshals to Albany, GA, for his or her court appearances. They’ve been held one after the other at federal prisons in West Virginia and Novel Jersey.
Court paperwork point to that Stewart Parnell’s attorneys will argue their shopper was denied efficient counsel at and all around the unique trial. Arguments around ineffective counsel are general in Motion 2255 hearings.
At his listening to, Michael Parnell may per chance be represented by Charlottesville, VA, protection approved legitimate Elliott M Harding. Harding, who practices solo, was the first to get the coolest to exhaust the voir dire transcripts from the jury need for the 2014 trial.
“The voir dire transcripts shall dwell confidential, with the data therein reviewed entirely by counsel, their staunch and enhance workers, and the parties,” Langstaff’s affirm says. “The voir dire transcripts and the data contained herein shall entirely be dilapidated for features connected with the dedication of this pending 2255 Motion.”
In breaking those transcripts free, Harding reminded the Magistrate about Michael Parnell’s Motion 2255 petition. “Three of the issues raised in Mr. Parnell’s petition trouble jury prejudice,” he said. “Mr. Parnell’s first order entails trial counsel’s failure to strike jurors for motive due to their data of deaths that had been reportedly the consequence of food contamination by the usage of salmonella. A third order entails trial counsel’s failure to compare the trouble of whether or no longer jurors had been improperly prejudiced by the revelation of deaths inviting salmonella once counsel was made responsive to this allegation post-trial.”
Langstaff has served as the Magistrate Bear for Georgia’s Heart District of the Federal Court machine since 2010. He dealt with some pre-trial concerns within the PCA felony case. He also dominated that the Motion 2255 petitions filed by the Parnells had been sufficient to head to a listening to.
The Centers for Disease Regulate and Prevention in Atlanta, the usage of PulseNet on Nov. 10, 2008, realized a tiny and highly dispersed cluster of 13 Salmonella Typhimurium isolates with an unheard of DNA fingerprint pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern in 12 states.
By April 20, 2009, at the least 714 folks in 46 states had been confirmed with a plague tension of Salmonella Typhimurium connected with the PCA facility Blakely, GA. Thousands of others had been in all probability sickened with out affirmation.
Mary M. Englehart, trial approved legitimate for the Division of Justice Particular person Protection Division, may per chance be returning to Albany for the Motion 2255 hearings. Along with Patrick Hearn and Alan Dasher, she was share of the U.S. Division of Justice trio of attorneys that obtained the convictions at the 2014 jury trial.
This time, Englehart will represent the govt. with Speare I. Hodges, one other DOJ Particular person Protection Division approved legitimate.
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