HAZELWOOD CASE ON ITS WAY TO STATE SUPREME COURT

The Associated Press

ANCHORAGE- State prosecutors challenging a decision to overturn Joseph Hazelwood's oil spill conviction have lost a round with the state Court of Appeals. The court Wednesday denied a Department of Law appeal to reconsider the unanimous ruling that overturned Hazelwood's misdemeanor conviction stemming from the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The appeals court gave no reason for its refusal, said Cynthia Hora, chief of the state's Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals.

Hora said Thursday that an appeal would be filed within two weeks with the state Supreme Court.

Arguments would be similar to those brought before the appeals court, although Hora said they probably would be rephrased.

Hazelwood was convicted in a jury trial in Anchorage of negligently discharging oil in connection with the accident in 1989.

The tanker ran aground about 25 miles south of the Prince William Sound community of Valdez and dumped more than 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil into Alaska waters.

Edward McNally, Anchorage district attorney, said Thursday that the state wanted to exhaust all appeals.

"We will read each ruling as it comes along, but our working plan is to hold open the option of going up the U.S. Supreme Court," McNally said.

Acceptance of the appeal by the state Supreme Court could lead to full briefings, a hearing or both, McNally said.

The appeals court in July said its decision would be "a bitter pill" for some Alaskans following damage caused by the nation's worst oil spill.

But the court said the state had improperly used evidence that flowed from Hazelwood's own reporting of the spill. Federal protections grant immunity from prosecution to those who report spills.

Hazelwood alerted Coast Guard officials at Valdez the night the tanker ran aground that it was leaking oil.

State Attorney General Charlie Cole vowed the day the conviction was overturned that the state would appeal. It was an error for the appeals court to conclude that the state's evidence was tainted, Cole has said, because prosecutors had developed their own evidence independent of Hazelwood's report.

The appeals court said requiring immunity in a case as widely reported as Hazelwood's would encourage prompt reporting of spills in the future.

---

Story Index: Main | The Captain	Overall: story 244 of 380 The Captain story 43 of 56