The Boston Marathon bombings killed three and injured more than 180. The West, Texas industrial explosion killed at least 14 and injured more than 180. Guess which one drew the greater media and law enforcement response?

If it turns out that the West, Texas explosion is the result of a “terrorist act,” expect federal law enforcement officials and the mass media to fly to Texas from Boston. But until then, don’t expect much.

One reason — our two tier criminal justice system. One tier for individuals. Another for corporations.

Case in point — the April 2010 Massey Energy Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia. In December 2011, the Department of Labor found that Massey’s “unlawful policies and practices” were the “root cause of this tragedy.” But in the same month, the Justice Department said it would not criminally prosecute the company. Instead, the Justice Department entered into a “non prosecution agreement” with Massey.

David Uhlmann is the former head of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.

He was disturbed by Justice Department’s failure to criminally prosecute Massey. He says he would have criminally charged the company. After all, he says, he has charged many a major corporate criminal for far less human damage. Uhlmann, currently a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, says that the Massey non prosecution agreement is part of an expanding pattern.

“The deal with Massey continues a disturbing trend whereby corporations can avoid criminal prosecution by entering deferred prosecution or non-prosecution agreements,” Uhlmann wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times in December 2011. “They create the appearance that justice can be bought.”

Instead of securing guilty pleas in clear cut cases of corporate criminality, the Justice Department caves to the demands of corporate criminal defense attorneys and enters into deferred and non-prosecution agreements.

Just this week, the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) each entered into a non-prosecution agreement with Ralph Lauren Corporation after alleging that the company bribed its way into markets in Argentina.

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