For the most part, criminal charges are levied against individuals unrelated to any corporate involvement. But corporations can be charged with crimes, and although such an abstraction cannot be physically placed in a jail cell, it can face onerous fines and even termination of a corporate charter. What about the executives—can they personally face charges for actions of the business as a whole? There are clear cases where the answer is “yes,” such as deliberate unlawful diversion of, e.g., opioids. And then there are more novel situations; while Pharma execs and their firms face sturdy protections against civil liability for vaccine issues, there is no comparable protection for criminal liability. So, activists around the USA have considered ways to hold corporate leaders criminally liable for what they see as egregious actions leading to wide-spread vaccine injury, especially relating to the COVID-19 products. One state, Arkansas, has just introduced a bill defining the crime of vaccine injury, which could put Pharma vaccine executives who mislead the public and thereby cause death or serious bodily injury in prison, for up to the duration of their natural lives. At the same time, there are a variety of other contexts where potential criminal liability arises.
