The Defense Establishes Its Themes
This afternoon, following the prosecution’s theme of a “secret,” the defense finally presented its story.
While the defense had numerous themes, Carolyn Kubota, in representing Jack Wolter, made a statement encapsulating the defense’s approach, “Libby was a tragedy, sure, but not a crime.”
For further information on the legal arguments, see:
The Defense’s Trial Themes
Posted: February 23rd, 2009 under Law.
Comments
Comment from Terry Trent
Time February 24, 2009 at 10:19 am
Just to be clear: The Libby mine was actually PLANNED AS AN ASBESTOS (TREMOLITE) MINE IN 1928. It only became a “vermiculite” mine because the latter was deemed more valuable. Indeed, the USA was asked by the UICC (now IARC, or related) to “investigate” “chrysotile and tremolite” in 1964, per the appendices to the NY Conference volume in NY Acad Sci 1965 – the USA was the ONLY country asked to investigate “tremolite” mining exposures and any differential effects on health, particularly mesothelioma, and did NOT do so.
Comment from Terry Trent
Time February 23, 2009 at 9:59 pm
The defense will be missing the boat with comments such as ““This was a learning process for everyone involved, everyone was just learning about all of this, whether it was Grace, the EPA, the government, or my client,” …if they do not take a look at precisely what is occurring in other Libby type scenarios today in places such as Jefferson County Louisiana (the largest mesothelioma epidemic the US has ever seen) and El Dorado County California where residents are being moved onto Tremolite deposits similar to the Libby mine site….where as you might guess, we still hear “we don’t know nothing, it’s a learning process” etc etc etc ad infinitum ad nauseam. In short, it is extremely difficult for the government to claim the high ground when they are doing exactly the same thing today as they did in Libby all those many years ago.
T Trent