A federal judge sentenced two former Peanut Corporation of America executives this week for their roles in a 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 700 people and killed nine, including Minnesotan Shirley Mae Almer.

Former Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell, 61, was given a 28-year prison sentence, while his brother, former Peanut Corp. Vice President Michael Parnell, 56, was sentenced to 20 years. In addition, former plant quality control manager Mary Wilkerson was sentenced to five years in prison.

Last year, the Parnell brothers were convicted in federal court of dozens of felonies including conspiracy, fraud, obstruction of justice and introducing misbranded and adulterated food into interstate commerce in relation to the 2008-2009 salmonella outbreak that stemmed from tainted batches of peanut putter their company shipped. Wilkerson was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors alleged that the Parnells knew the peanut butter was tainted with salmonella, but that they shipped it anyway out of fear of losing customers. More than 700 people were sickened by the peanut butter, including 45 from Minnesota, and nine people died as a result.

The case was groundbreaking, as it marked the first time in United States history that corporate executives received felony convictions in relation to a food safety case. Peanut Corporation of America is now defunct.

According to the February 2013 indictment, Stewart Parnell showed a pattern of disregarding food safety as far back as 2004, when investigators alleged that peanut products from the Georgia-based company weren’t recalled after contamination was discovered. Another time, Stewart Parnell was allegedly told that salmonella tests weren’t available for one shipment, and he replied via email: “just ship it. I cannot afford to loose [sic] another customer,” the indictment stated.

The charges stated that the company also knowingly shipped out batches of product that had previously tested positive for salmonella, and that they didn’t adequately repair leaky roofs or follow proper sanitation procedures.

At the time of her death, Shirley Mae Almer was staying in the Bethany Good Samaritan Home in Brainerd as she recovered from a urinary tract infection. Shirley had recently beaten brain cancer, and before that, lung cancer. She was scheduled to leave the nursing home just before Christmas 2008 and was looking forward to spending the holidays with her family. She was 72 years old.

"No one should ever have to suffer the fate of Shirley Almer, a grandmother and recovering cancer patient from Perham, Minnesota, who died from simply eating a piece of peanut butter toast," U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said in a press release. "The efforts of Shirley’s son, Jeff, and all those who have worked to raise the awareness of food safety deserve to be commended today. While this announcement won’t ease the terrible loss ‎for families of those who died, it will hopefully give them some measure of closure after years of waiting for justice. It should also serve as a powerful reminder to prevent anyone from knowingly selling dangerous and tainted food to unsuspecting customers in the future.”

Shirley’s son Jeff Almer, a Savage resident, told the Savage Pacer last year that he experienced “waves of relief” upon hearing the guilty verdicts.

“Not happiness, just relief,” said Almer, who attended as much of the seven-week trial in Georgia as he could and was present for the verdict, in September 2014. “It was a long time coming. Five-and-a-half years of waiting for that moment.

“A precedent has now been set that there are ramifications for people putting greed above safe food,” Almer said in 2014. “That’s what this case was all about — greed.”

At the Sept. 21 sentencing hearing, Almer was among several relatives of victims to give an impact statement.

"My mother died a painful death from salmonella, and the look of horror on her face as she died shall always haunt me," Almer said on Monday. "I just hope they ship you all to jail."

Ever since his mother’s death, Almer has been determined to make sure preventable tragedies such as the one his family endured never happen again. He testified before Congress in 2009 on behalf of STOP (Safe Tables Our Priority) and pleaded for more regulatory oversight of food companies and their safety protocols. He’s also made multiple trips to Washington D.C., over the past six years to lobby federal legislators.

After years of fighting for change, a bit of progress was finally made in January 2011 when President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law. The bill ordered a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation’s food safety regulation system.