A jury must decide whether Joseph Hazelwood was a scapegoat for an accident that spawned the nation's worst oil spill or an alcohol-impaired skipper who gambled with the safety of his tanker and lost.
The jurors who sat through Hazelwood's nearly eight-week trial were scheduled Wednesday to begin deliberating misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, operating the tanker Exxon Valdez while intoxicated, negligent discharge of oil and felony criminal mischief.Hazelwood faces up to seven years, three months in jail and a $61,000 fine if convicted.
The six-man, six-woman jury listened to seven hours of closing arguments and instructions from the judge Tuesday.
"Captain Hazelwood chose to be a gambler," prosecutor Brent Cole argued. "He chose to be a risk-taker that day. He chose to sit in a bar, the Pipeline Club, most of the afternoon" and downed several vodkas before sailing.
Hours later, after Hazelwood had turned over the helm to a mate, the Exxon Valdez smashed into Bligh Reef in the early minutes of March 24, 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons of oil that devastated wildlife and despoiled hundreds of miles of environmentally sensitive Alaskan coastline.
Defense attorney Dick Madson said Alaska made Hazelwood a scapegoat in what was simply "a maritime accident, not a crime. . . . There's a reason we're here today. Politics."