Brent Benjamin

Brent D. Benjamin is a justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Justice Benjamin hails originally from Marietta, Ohio, but has made residence in West Virginia for the past 20 years. Before his election, he was a principal attorney with Robinson and McElwee, PLLC in Charleston, West Virginia. His 20-year practice at that firm involved general civil litigation in state and federal courts, including toxic torts and complex litigation. His civil rights practice focused on protecting children from physical and sexual abuse. He was elected to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in November 2004 after an expensive campaign against his main opponent, Warren McGraw. Benjamin received 53% of the votes, McGraw received 47%. He began a 12 year term on January 1, 2005.

He has practiced in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, and the Kentucky Supreme Court. He is a 1999 graduate of Leadership West Virginia. He is also a current member of the Hocking College Archaeological Mission, and has participated in archaeological excavations in the United States and Egypt.

In April 2008, Benjamin cast the deciding vote in a controversial state Supreme Court case that reversed a $50 million verdict in favor of Harman Mining against the coal giant Massey Energy. [http://wvgazette.com/News/200804030809] Benjamin refused to recuse himself from the case despite being the beneficiary of more than $3 million in independent campaign expenditures from Massey's chief executive, Don Blankenship. The decision has been widely cited as an example of the perils of judicial elections, in which judges accept campaign donations from citizens who have litigation pending before their courts.

Hugh Caperton, chief executive of Harmon Mining, has filed a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court arguing that Massey executive Don Blankenship's expenditure of $3 million on behalf of Benjamin's election raised an appearance of impartiality on Benjamin's part, which required him to disqualify and, in the absence of that, denied Haman Mining due process of law. The Haman Mining petition is supported by "amicus" briefs filed by the American Bar Association, The Brennan Center for Justice, The Committee for Economic Development and Public Citizen. [http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/caperton_v_massey/]

External links

* [http://www.state.wv.us/wvsca/benjamin.htm West Virginia Biographical Page]
* [http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/judges/ Justice for sale] (American Radio Works)
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23669-2004Nov3.html Washington Post article]