Fifth Amendment Capitalist: Peanut King Takes Five At The House

Today’s Washington Post ran two stories on Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell’s invocation of his Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination at yesterday’s House Commerce Committee hearing. Lyndsey Layton’s piece here reports on the day’s hearing, which included gut-wrenching testimony from family members of salmonella victims. Those victims contracted salmonella from eating peanut butter produced at Peanut Corporation of America plants. Meanwhile, Dana Milbank’s Washington Sketch here details the theatrics of Parnell’s public shaming. Given the deaths that occurred during the salmonella outbreak, Parnell’s invocation of the Fifth Amendment, and Parnell’s apparent obsession with profits over safety, Milbank sees Parnell’s in-person shaming–he was Waxmanned by Waxman himself-as a good thing. I disagree. The hearing itself was necessary and proper. The in-person shaming of Parnell in tandem with his Fifth Amendment invocation reeks of McCarthyism. It teaches disrespect for the Constitution and prejudices the potential jury pool.  Don’t get me wrong. Parnell looks like a total slimeball. If he is guilty of a crime he should be prosecuted, convicted, and sent to prison. For a long time.