Dive Brief:
- Closing arguments are set to begin this morning in the trial of three people charged in a deadly salmonella outbreak at the now-bankrupt Peanut Corporation of America.
- Prosecutors spent five weeks laying out a detailed case alleging fraud, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice in connection with an outbreak that killed nine people and sickened 714 in 46 states.
- Two of the defendants presented no defense. A third argued that he was a customer of Peanut Corporation rather than an employee, and was thus caught in the middle of the conspiracy rather than a participant in it.
Dive Insight:
The defense teams' decision to avoid offering little in the way of a defense is just the latest unusual development in a most unusual case. The trial marks the first time that prosecutors have pursued criminal charges in connection with a foodborne illness. Yet no one has been charged in connection with the nine deaths. Rather, prosecutors have argued that the executives committed fraud and then tried to cover it up.
Now it appears that the entire case will hinge on whether or not the jury believed the testimony of a former executive who testified against his colleagues, and will accept the no-defense defense as something other than petulance.