Asbestos HUB

Andrew Schneider Speculates About What Justice Could Be Done For Libby Posted: 18 Mar 2009 04:54 AM PDT First, we are sad to see that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has closed. They have done a fantastic job reporting on the progress of the W.R. Grace mining, cleanup, after-effects, and now the trial. As a reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, I broke the story of the asbestos poisoning of Libby, Mont ., 10 years ago. Tonight, the paper prints its final edition, which means I won't be able to write about the outcome of the W.R. Grace criminal trial for the newspaper that first revealed what happened to Libby and its people. I'm going to try to keep up with the trial on this blog. But I thought I'd share with you the final post I wrote for the PI: What the people of northwestern Montana that I've spent a decade covering hope they will see coming out of the federal courtroom in Missoula. Libby resident Les Skramstad has passed on but before his death, told Schneider that he’d give up a year of his fleeting life just to sit in the front row of hard, wooden benches in Judge Donald Molloy's courtroom and watch justice delivered to W.R. Grace and five of its former VPs' and top managers. Schneider speculates that Skramstad wouldn’t have been happy were he here to witness the trial now. Les wanted to watch them swing. He anguished over the unbearable knowledge that on his work clothes, he brought that poison from the mine into his home and into the lungs of his wife, Norita, and three of his children. He wanted the death penalty for them, and he offered to build the gallows. Schneider reports that according to Libby residents he has spoken to in the past month, Grace and its executives should be standing trial for homicide. Unfortunately, the Clean Air Act of 1999 not have provisions for homicide charges so the accused W.R. Grace executives are only being held accountable for actions after that date. Read Schneider’s entry in Andrew Schneider Investigates.