How much longer?

Ken Ward had a great post in Coal Tattoo today, which is the sixth anniversary of Massey Energy's Aracoma mine fire which killed miners Don Bragg and Elvis Hatfield. Nobody far up the corporate ladder was prosecuted for those deaths, although MSHA did level record fines (at the time) against the company.

Just think: if justice would have truly been done then--and if the big dogs at Massey were justly served--there's a good chance those 29 miners killed at Upper Big Branch might be alive. Ward quotes lawyer Bruce Stanley, who represented the families of Bragg and Hatfield:

Sadly, aggressive prosecution against upper management in the Aracoma case might have spared us the horror of UBB. We’ll never know, of course. But we certainly hope that the lesson of making deals with the devil has been learned, that the criminal investigation makes its way into the boardroom as well as the guard shack, and that Alpha chooses a different path than its predecessor.

This time around, at least, federal prosecutors haven't ruled out additional prosecutions.

I don't mean to get too apocalyptic,or too vengeful, but I can't help thinking of the verse from the Book of Revelations where the martyred saints cry out to God, asking how much longer justice would be delayed.