How's the saying go?
How would you like to have your fate decided by people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty? Something like that.
This jury wanted to "send a message." There's so much wrong with that I don't have time to even start.
Read this though and just substitute "gun manufacturers" whenever you see "tobacco companies."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Report: Miami Jury Wanted
to Send Message
July 15, 2000 12:53 pm EST
MIAMI (Reuters) - The jurors who
slammed the tobacco industry with a
$145 billion judgment for injuring
Florida smokers said they did it to punish the cigarette
makers for lying about the dangers of smoking for
decades, a newspaper reported Saturday.
"You can't just say you're sorry after 50 years," Gary
Chwast, 30, told the Miami Herald.
"This case was not about (choosing to smoke.) It's about
if you know you're making a defective product, and these
companies knew that," he said. "You don't try to hide that
for 50 years."
The four men and two women who served on the
Miami-Dade Circuit Court panel for two years on Friday
returned the largest punitive damage award in U.S.
history.
The $145 billion judgment against the industry for injuring
hundreds of thousands of smokers included $73.96 billion
against a subsidiary of Marlboro-maker Philip Morris Cos.
Inc. (MO.N), the biggest U.S. cigarette company.
But the judgment, in a class-action lawsuit filed in 1994,
was likely to have little immediate effect on the
companies, which make most of the 20 billion packs of
cigarettes consumed each year in the United States,
because appeals could take years.
In earlier phases of the trial, the six jurors decided that
the cigarette companies were liable for the lung cancer
and some 20 other ailments among an estimated 500,000
or more unidentified smokers in Florida and awarded $12.7
million in compensatory damage to three class
representatives.
"We all thought we needed to send a strong message
based on the evidence," jury foreman Leighton Finegan
told the Herald. "The message was sent."
Chwast, a postal worker, said the lawyers representing
the tobacco companies were insulting, offering no credible
evidence that the firms could not afford such a judgment.
The companies claimed at trial that a large verdict could
bankrupt them.
"I'm not an idiot. The CEOs are making millions. Why are
they making so much if the companies don't have the
money? What are you not telling me? It offends me," he
said.
The jurors took just over four hours to reach the verdict,
but Finegan defended the swift judgment.
"There was no sense of animosity toward any one
company. But in light of the evidence presented to us
that showed for the past 50 years these companies have
lied, hidden information and burned documents, that
makes me angry," Finegan, an elementary school
vice-principal, said.
"I hope it sends a strong message for all companies in
America that they can't fraudulently represent anything to
the public," he said.
How would you like to have your fate decided by people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty? Something like that.
This jury wanted to "send a message." There's so much wrong with that I don't have time to even start.
Read this though and just substitute "gun manufacturers" whenever you see "tobacco companies."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Report: Miami Jury Wanted
to Send Message
July 15, 2000 12:53 pm EST
MIAMI (Reuters) - The jurors who
slammed the tobacco industry with a
$145 billion judgment for injuring
Florida smokers said they did it to punish the cigarette
makers for lying about the dangers of smoking for
decades, a newspaper reported Saturday.
"You can't just say you're sorry after 50 years," Gary
Chwast, 30, told the Miami Herald.
"This case was not about (choosing to smoke.) It's about
if you know you're making a defective product, and these
companies knew that," he said. "You don't try to hide that
for 50 years."
The four men and two women who served on the
Miami-Dade Circuit Court panel for two years on Friday
returned the largest punitive damage award in U.S.
history.
The $145 billion judgment against the industry for injuring
hundreds of thousands of smokers included $73.96 billion
against a subsidiary of Marlboro-maker Philip Morris Cos.
Inc. (MO.N), the biggest U.S. cigarette company.
But the judgment, in a class-action lawsuit filed in 1994,
was likely to have little immediate effect on the
companies, which make most of the 20 billion packs of
cigarettes consumed each year in the United States,
because appeals could take years.
In earlier phases of the trial, the six jurors decided that
the cigarette companies were liable for the lung cancer
and some 20 other ailments among an estimated 500,000
or more unidentified smokers in Florida and awarded $12.7
million in compensatory damage to three class
representatives.
"We all thought we needed to send a strong message
based on the evidence," jury foreman Leighton Finegan
told the Herald. "The message was sent."
Chwast, a postal worker, said the lawyers representing
the tobacco companies were insulting, offering no credible
evidence that the firms could not afford such a judgment.
The companies claimed at trial that a large verdict could
bankrupt them.
"I'm not an idiot. The CEOs are making millions. Why are
they making so much if the companies don't have the
money? What are you not telling me? It offends me," he
said.
The jurors took just over four hours to reach the verdict,
but Finegan defended the swift judgment.
"There was no sense of animosity toward any one
company. But in light of the evidence presented to us
that showed for the past 50 years these companies have
lied, hidden information and burned documents, that
makes me angry," Finegan, an elementary school
vice-principal, said.
"I hope it sends a strong message for all companies in
America that they can't fraudulently represent anything to
the public," he said.