The public's perception of justice took a hit in this story from Nightline regarding the West Virginia Supreme Court and Massey Energy.
A picture of your Supreme Court Chief Justice Elliott "Spike" Maynard having drinks with the CEO of the nation's largest coal company while vacationing with their girlfriends on the French Riviera with cases pending before that same court looks bad, real bad.
Nightline did a story on this which had previously made the rounds in national papers. Below is a link to a video from WV Public Broadcasting available at You Tube.
I apologive for some of the poor formatting, but the content is here. For a list of links "googled" on this topic, then click HERE. For a Wikipedia link on Spike Maynard, click here which contains links to some of the pleadings, opinions, motions, etc.
After the disclosure, Maynard recused himself, as well as Justice Starcher, leaving Justice Benjamin as one of the remaining justices to hear the case. "Shortly after the initial verdict against Massey, Blankenship helped to raise $3.5 million for an advertising campaign that led to the defeat of one of the Supreme Court justices. The winning candidate who benefited from Blankenship's money, Justice Brent Benjamin, has refused to recuse himself from the Massey appeals. Benjamin turned down a request from ABC News to be interviewed. Despite numerous requests for his recusal, Benjamin writes in court documents that there is no evidence to suggest that he cannot be fair and impartial." [for a link to stories on this election, see Justice for sale(American Radio Works)].
John Grisham's novel, "The Appeal", is it life imitating fiction, or the other way around?
Meanwhile, here is the recent Nightline story.
Another Legal Victory for Tough Coal Boss
Questions Have Emerged About Blankenship's Relationships With State Supreme Court Justices Hearing Multi-Million-Dollar Appeals by His Company
By BRIAN ROSS and MADDY SAUER
April 7, 2008
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