The 44-year-old, who entered a minimum security federal prison in West Virginia in March for his felony stint, reportedly wants US District Judge Irene Berger to set aside or amend his sentence for a number of reasons.

According to the Associated Press, May claims his defense attorney Tim Carrico refused to let him tell the court that Massey’s advance warnings of safety inspections – an action against federal mine safety regulations – was commonplace.

He told Berger that more than 100 UBB workers participated in the scheme, which had no paper trail.

However, May said Carrico prohibited the testimony to protect the producer’s executives, including former chairman Don Blankenship and ex-Performance Coal exec Chris Blanchard.

In addition to claiming he was made a scapegoat for the disaster as prosecutors were “looking for a villain”, May also reportedly referred to his representative as ineffective and said longtime Massey general counsel Shane Harvey was just one individual steering the attorney’s actions.

“[I] became an easy scapegoat for the US Attorney's Office to relieve public pressure with a conviction and became a sacrificial lamb for Massey and its corporate successor, Alpha,” he reportedly told Berger.

The USAO has not released a public statement on May’s claims, and Blanchard told the AP he had no involvement as the now-convicted May contends.

May, a 17-year veteran of Massey, filed the petition without the assistance of an attorney.

Massey had hired Carrico on his behalf, he said, and Alpha paid Carrico after it acquired Massey.

Alpha took over all of Massey’s operations in June 2011. It permanently closed the Raleigh County UBB mine.