Arguments Begin Over 2001 Anthrax Death

Tallahassee FLOn May 5, 2008, lawyers told a Florida Supreme Court that the government and a particular laboratory are not obligated under state law to protect the public from materials that are lethal. This claim comes as a result of a lawsuit filed by the widow of a tabloid photo editor who died of anthrax exposure in 2001.

Robert Stevens, 63, died on October 1, 2001 when he was exposed to an envelope with anthrax inside. The envelope had been mailed to the Boca Raton-based American Media Inc., which is the publisher of such supermarket tabloids as the Globe, Sun, and National Enquirer. His wife then filed a lawsuit against the Columbus, Ohio research company Battelle Memorial and the government. She claims that the Ohio Company was the source of the anthrax that killed her husband.

However, investigations have not been able to determine where the anthrax came from, who sent it, or how that person or persons were able to get it. This has led the attorneys for the defense to argue that there was no way for the government or the laboratory to foresee that the material would be used as a weapon. No one had used it as a terroristic weapon before that point. The reason why Battelle had it was because they were using it to find ways to protect against exposure to it and to treat it if exposure would occur.

The attorney for Stevens, Phillip Burlington, has said that a high risk material such as anthrax should have been the exception because it had a potential for misuse. He believes that when a company is dealing with substances that can be used for biological warfare, it is reasonable for the government to expect that it could be used as a terroristic material.

Since the death of Stevens, four other people died of anthrax exposure. Amongst those who died were a woman in Connecticut, another woman in New York, and two postal workers in a Washington D.C. facility. The source of the anthrax was never able to be determined.

In Stevens's case, the lawsuit makes claims that the anthrax strain was traced back to Fort Detrick's Research Institute for Infectious Diseases in Maryland. The jury will be asked to determine this if a trial does occur. It has been stated as a possibility by both the Institute of Genomic Research in Maryland and Northern Arizona University that the strain could have originated from the Fort Detrick facility.

The suit is also claiming that the government and Batelle were negligent in that they did not keep the anthrax secure. In the meantime, it has not been indicated when the Supreme Court will make its ruling.

By: Ginger Gillenwater