It was the verdict of a 12-person jury on which he served in February. Tobacco hasn't been the only business newly buffeted by this wave of juror outrage. In February, for the first time, a jury decided to hold gun manufacturers responsible for the criminal use of their products. Again, some jurors said the industry had it coming.
Lawsuits condemning cigarettes and guns are nothing new.
Advocacy groups have campaigned for years against the tobacco and firearms industries, using the courts as a weapon. What is new is that juries are listening. But they add a new element. Jurors in these cases were staking out new territory in American law, asserting their interest in issues broader than the behavior of a single corporate defendant. The recent verdicts are part of a pattern of juror activism across the country that also includes so-called juror nullification, in which juries have let criminal defendants go free, despite the weight of the evidence against them, in protest of particular laws.