Massey Energy CEO Spends $3 Million to Elect Judge in Case Against His Company

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship pours over $3 million into West Virginia’s 2004 judicial election to elect Brent Benjamin to the state Supreme Court of Appeals, successfully defeating incumbent justice Warren McGraw. Blankenship’s spending—equivalent to “a dollar for every West Virginian” as he later boasted—exceeds the total amount spent by all other Benjamin supporters combined and Benjamin’s own campaign committee. Benjamin wins by fewer than 50,000 votes.

The extraordinary campaign spending occurs while Massey faces a $50 million civil judgment on appeal before the very court Benjamin seeks to join. In 2002, a Boone County jury found Massey liable for fraudulently canceling a coal supply contract with Hugh Caperton’s Harman Mining Company, driving it out of business. Blankenship contributes the statutory maximum directly to Benjamin’s campaign, donates $2.5 million to the political organization “And For The Sake Of The Kids” opposing McGraw, and spends over $500,000 on independent expenditures for direct mailings and advertisements supporting Benjamin.

When the appeal reaches the West Virginia Supreme Court in 2007, Caperton petitions for Benjamin to recuse himself due to the obvious conflict of interest. Benjamin refuses and votes with the 3-2 majority to overturn the $50 million verdict against Massey. The case proceeds to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy rules on June 8, 2009 that Benjamin’s refusal to recuse created such a “serious risk of actual bias” that it violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court holds that “just as no man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, similar fears of bias can arise when—without the other parties’ consent—a man chooses the judge in his own cause.”

The scandal deepens when photographs surface showing another West Virginia Supreme Court justice, Spike Maynard, vacationing with Blankenship on the French Riviera while Massey’s case was pending. The images appear in The New York Times on January 15, 2008, forcing Maynard to grant Caperton’s recusal motion. USA Today’s editorial board writes that Blankenship “has vividly illustrated how big money corrupts judicial elections. It puts justice up for sale to the highest bidder.” Novelist John Grisham reveals on NBC’s “Today Show” that the West Virginia judicial corruption scandal inspired his 2008 bestseller “The Appeal.” The case becomes a landmark example of how extractive industry executives can purchase favorable judicial outcomes through campaign spending, demonstrating regulatory and judicial capture at the state level.