A decade after his indictment and a 12 months after United States Justice of the Peace Decide Thomas Q. Langstaff denied his petition for early launch, one-time peanut butter mogul Stewart Parnell nonetheless has another card to play.
Parnell, 68, has 15 years to run on his sentence imposed after a 2014 jury conviction for quite a few federal felonies related to the lethal 2008-09 multistate Salmonella outbreak traced to his Peanut Company of America peanut processing facility in Blakely, GA. He’s serving his time on the federal correctional facility at Hazelton, WV.
Parnell begins this 12 months with a brand new enchantment of his Habeas corpus petition within the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the eleventh U.S. Circuit in Atlanta. A Habeas petition claims illegal detention or imprisonment due to constitutional infractions. It could actually open cell doorways,
After two years within the Georgia Center District, senior Federal Decide W. Louis Sands upheld Langstaff’s denial of Parnell’s Haberous petition, and his lawyer appealed the problem to the eleventh Circuit.
“Stewart Parnell appeals to the USA Court docket of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from the September 23, 2022, order denying his movement below 28 U.S.C. §2255 (Doc 803) and the judgment entered on the identical date, ” Savannah lawyer Amy Copeland knowledgeable the appellate courtroom on Nov. 17, 2022.
Sands’ order of final Sept. 23 is the topic of the enchantment, which up to now has solely produced administrative filings with the Atlanta courtroom.
Decide Langstaff advisable denial of each claims asserted by Parnell: (1) trial counsel’s ineffective help by failure to maneuver for a change of venue and failure to maneuver to strike jurors for trigger who knew or heard about allegations of deaths ensuing from the salmonella outbreak; and (2) these two failures have been stated to represent “structural error. ”
If no well timed objection is filed or a dedication is just not objected to, the Court docket critiques the Suggestion for clear error. Right here, Parnell has well timed objected to Decide Langstaff’s Suggestion.
Parnell started the present Habeous corpous proceeds on Sept. 6, 2019, with a Movement to Vacate below 28 U.S.C. § 2255, alleging (1) ineffective help of his trial counsel as a result of counsel failed to maneuver to alter the venue and did not strike a juror for trigger and (2) these two errors constituted structural error.
That very same day, the petitioner additionally filed a Movement for Evidentiary Listening to on 28 U.S.C. § 2255 Movement (“§ 2255 Movement Evidentiary Listening to”) In Might 2021, Decide Langstaff held a two-day evidentiary listening to on Parnell’s ’s § 2255 Movement.
Parnell, who was the chief government of PCA earlier than it went bankrupt, was indicted on Feb. 15, 2013, with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud; conspiracy to introduce into interstate commerce adulterated and misbranded meals; introduction of adulterated and misbranded meals into interstate commerce with intent to defraud or mislead; interstate shipments fraud; mail fraud; wire fraud; and obstruction of justice.
After a 34-day trial, the jury discovered him responsible on all counts, besides one depend of wire fraud. On Oct. 6, 2014, Parnell filed a post-trial “Movement for New Trial,” alleging that juror misconduct prejudiced his proper to a good trial.
Decide Sands instantly sealed the proceedings in addition to filings associated to the allegations and held two hearings. The primary listening to was on Oct. 23, 2014, and the courtroom solely known as on the juror at problem to assemble info and particulars on allegations of misconduct.
The second listening to was on Nov. 12, 2014, and the courtroom known as on all jurors, together with alternates. Primarily based on the 2 hearings, the courtroom finally discovered that there was no jury misconduct or bias and denied Parnell’s Movement for New Trial.
Parnell was sentenced on Sept. 21, 2015, to 336 months imprisonment adopted by three years of supervised launch. The judgment was amended on April 6, 2016, in order that defendants wouldn’t need to pay restitution. A number of weeks later, on October 1, 2015, Petitioner appealed his conviction. In January 2018, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the trial courtroom’s judgment.
The Justice of the Peace Decide has additionally issued a report within the Habeas corpus petition for Michael Parnell, however Decide Sands has not dominated on that one. Michael Parnell is Stweart’s brother and was a peanut dealer involving PCA. The 64-year previous was additionally discovered responsible of quite a few federal felonies. He’s eight years from launch from the federal jail at Fort Dix,NJ.
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