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Criminal Law Keyed to Kadish
State v. Hazelwood
Citation:
946 P.2d 875 (1997)Facts
Captain Joseph Hazelwood was in command of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez on March 24, 1989, when it ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The grounding resulted in what was at the time the largest oil spill in U.S. history, with approximately eleven million gallons of crude oil pouring into the pristine waters. Hazelwood reported that he was “evidently leaking some oil.” He was subsequently charged and convicted under former AS 46.03.790(a) for negligent discharge of oil, a class B misdemeanor carrying a potential 90-day jail sentence. The conviction was based on a civil negligence standard rather than the more demanding criminal negligence standard. The case went through multiple appeals, with the Court of Appeals twice reversing his conviction, the second time on grounds that the civil negligence standard was insufficient for criminal liability in this context.
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