THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

No one would blink if he got 28 years for pulling out a gun and shooting people. So even though he was not charged with killing anybody, Steward Parnell received a cumulative sentence of 28 years for 67 counts related to shipping contaminated peanut products that did kill nine people.

A former peanut company executive was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for his role in a deadly salmonella outbreak, the stiffest punishment ever handed out to a producer in a foodborne illness case.

The outbreak in 2008 and 2009 was blamed for nine deaths and sickened hundreds more, and triggered one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

Experts say the trial of former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell and two co-defendants a year ago marked the first time U.S. food producers stood trial on criminal charges in a food-poisoning case. The company went bankrupt following the salmonella outbreak.

U.S. Attorney Michael Moore of Georgia's Middle District, whose office prosecuted the case, called it "a landmark with implications that will resonate not just in the food industry but in corporate boardrooms across the country."

A federal jury convicted Parnell, 61, of knowingly shipping contaminated peanut butter and of faking results of lab tests intended to screen for salmonella.

During the seven-week trial last year, prosecutors said the Parnell brothers covered up the presence of salmonella in the company's peanut products for years, even creating fake certificates showing the products were uncontaminated despite laboratory results showing otherwise.

The Parnells have said they never knowingly endangered customers, and their supporters asked a judge on Monday to show mercy.

"No one thought that the products were unsafe or could harm someone," said Stewart Parnell's daughter, Grey Parnell. "Dad brought them home to us. We all ate it."

An official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified at the trial that the company's peanut products sickened 714 people in 46 states, including 166 of whom were hospitalized. Salmonella is estimated to cause 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the CDC. The symptoms usually include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps.

The idea of shipping product that may contain lethal bacteria concentrations is not a great business model. It is not even a good movie plot. Whether it is for 9 deaths or 67 criminal counts including conspiracy, wire fraud and obstruction of justice, 28 years seems about right.