Biography
Donnie Thornsbury is a union miner who was involved in the bitter 15-month strike of the A.T. Massey Coal Company and its subsidiaries in 1984-85. He served as Local 2496 President of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA).
Thornsbury and four other miners were framed for the May 1985 shooting death of scab coal hauler Hayes West. The five were among the most militant miners at the Samoyed Energy Company Mine in Pike County, Kentucky, near the West Virginia border. A number of witnesses testified that the murder was staged by the company to obtain a court injunction against picketing in order to break the strike.
The paid informants alleged that the shots that killed West were fired from the top of a nearby mountain. But West was killed by a blast from a shotgun, a close range weapon, and fatally wounded by ammunition that was generally available only to police and security companies. Witnesses reported seeing guards on the mountain at the time. None testified to seeing any union miners there. There were no fingerprints of the defendants on any of the guns or shell casings allegedly used in the shooting, and the shotgun that was allegedly the murder weapon was never found. While one miner was acquitted, Judge Wilhoit dolled out the maximum sentences for the remaining four despite lack of evidence.
