Biography
Thornsbury was one of several striking union miners prosecuted in federal court after a coal-truck ambush during a Kentucky labor dispute. The prosecution alleged that, amid escalating strike tensions, the miners carried out an armed attack on trucks hauling coal, damaging vehicles traveling in interstate commerce and resulting in the death of a truck driver.
A federal jury convicted him under the same interstate-commerce vehicle statute used against his co-defendants, treating the attack as a deliberate sabotage of coal transport that endangered—and did, in fact, take—human life. The convictions are frequently cited in discussions of the criminalization and escalation of strike-era violence in Appalachian coal country.
Pretrial custody
Contemporary UPI reporting on August 8, 1987 identifies David Thornsbury among the five defendants arrested the preceding Friday, August 7, and held without bond. Initial custody therefore preceded the previously recorded February 3, 1988 sentencing date. The later sentence and existing release endpoint are preserved.
Source: UPI, August 8, 1987.
Workers Vanguard reported a December 17, 1987 jury conviction for interstate-commerce interference, conspiracy and firearms violations.
