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Jury Awards $6M to Taser Victim's Family
Oh Taser, your house of cards is about to come crumbling down, blown apart by the winds of US litigation and the righteous fury of your mostly innocent victims. Last Friday, a federal jury in San Jose, California found the stun-gun-maker responsible for the death of Robert Heston Jr., a 40-year-old man, and has awarded his family more than $6 million in damages.
Sure, Heston had an enlarged heart due to long-term methamphetamine abuse, but it was the Taser shocks that sent him to a better place. Despite a 12 percent drop in stock value after the ruling, the company that makes Tasers continues to pump the devices into the marketplace. Oh well, let's hope that this latest ruling will, at the very least, make folks pause before they start juicing people full of electricity... those things aren't toys, you know. [Source: The Lede at NYTimes via Wired]
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Comments
12
Subscribe to commentsAngiebabyJun 11th 2008 11:12AM
$6M? No way. The taser has been used successfully millions of times, but soon it will go bankrupt with payouts like this for the few deaths incurred from its use. This is why it takes sooooo long to get new products, especially medically helpful medications, on the market in the US. If your product has successfully helped 3 million people, and one other isolated case resulted in death, this level of financial retribution will bankrupt the company. The end result? Sorry. We can't afford to help millions anymore.
chrisJun 11th 2008 6:25PM
Totally un realistic. If the taser was not used the guy would have been shoot with a firearm. The taser is an appropriate tool for attempting to stop violent people who have shown the ability and intention of assaulting someone, including the police. A police officer should not have to risk injury from some crazed individual. This suspects actions resulted in him being tased. If not for his actions he would not have been tased and he might still be alive.
PeterJun 11th 2008 12:18PM
Well said Angiebaby!!! Taze 'em!! Keep the rest of us safe!!!
ChrisJun 11th 2008 12:29PM
Well, for what little it's worth here's MY thought.......
Had the individual in question complied with the requests of the officer and been peaceful and co-operative he probably would NOT have been tazed.
HE is the one who did all the drugs that enlarged his heart. He's the one that didn't comply with the officer's requests. He's the one who basically asked to be tazed, maced, pepper sprayed or even shot. No one else is repsonsible for his action, he brought it on himself.
MarkJun 11th 2008 1:54PM
Lets just shoot the tweekers the old fashion way. No need for a kinder more gentle way. I wonder how they parsed the award. Just what is the value of a human train wreck?
mikeJun 11th 2008 5:28PM
It seems it was truly a jury of his peers. I wonder how long it took to find that many dirt bag meth users willing to fill the jury pool to reach such an outcome. Did his family really deserve such a reward for his actions? Could the man have really earned that much in his life, even if he was their connection or their dealer for their drugs? Defense lawyers, who make it their job to find loopholes that will set free criminals that truly did the crime and not just to protect the innocently accused, should be considered to have committed a crime against our society and be punished! But this will never happen because judges were once lawyers themselves and will protect their own kind before they are willing to protect us ‘’we the people’’. That loud sucking sound seems to be getting even louder! Can you hear me still!
JimmyJun 20th 2008 2:07PM
I can't believe it,six million.He definetly asked for the less lethal force,I work in law enforcement and before we can use a taser we have to be shot with it.After getting hit with 50,000 volts it made me think,I will tase some one but only as a last resort,so my guess is he went far beyond the acceptable,
PETEJun 22nd 2008 10:14PM
NO DOUBT THIS WAS A LIBERAL JURY. IT'S HARD TO BELEIVE THE STUN GUN MAKERS WERE HELP RESPONSIBLE, JUST UNBELIEVABLE. THEY DIDN'T TASER THE GUY AND THEY SHOULD NOT BE HELD ACCOUNT. THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW CAR MAKES WILL BE GETTING SUED. THIS COUNTRY IS COMPLETELY GOING TO THE TOILET AND FAST!!. WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS ON THAT JURY.
buenotcJul 19th 2008 12:46AM
You guys are a bunch of morons!! This is a dangerous product that can kill you. Even on a healthy heart a 1.5 volt battery can stop someone's heart beat so compare that voltage to that of the taser if you're smart. But if you are educated and studied biology you would know it depends on when you're shocked during the contraction and relaxation of the heart for it to stop which is why some people who get hit by lightning survives and some don't.
Some people will live and some will die,lets flip a coin and see what happens. Some of you people seriously need to go back to school and learn something. Take courses in law,sociology,biology etc to better appreciate your existence.
How the hell could they not know it was a dangerous product?
Even an average 5th grader knows the dangers of electricity.
I hope you morons are not republicans because you're all a big disgrace to this dear country that believes in the ideals of life,liberty,equality and the pursuit of happyness.
http://thenewrepublican.wordpress.com/
GreggBJul 25th 2008 6:17PM
Buenotc, looks like you need to poke your head into a 5th-grade classroom sometime, or run back down to the local community college for a few more of those "advanced" lessons you're so fond of...
Voltage is not what kills, it's amperage. If voltage alone could kill, then people would drop like flies on a dry day; remember the last time you were shocked by a static discharge? Static is voltage, and nearly no amperage; the average static discharge from a human body is usually around 5,000-7,000 volts...
Tasers, stun guns, and the like, all operate on a high voltage, for the very fact that the use of pulsed high-voltage disrupts the central nervous systems normal communications, often to the point of incapacitation...and apparently a one-in-a-million or-so chance of death. Personally, I'd rather be hit with a stray taser shot, than a misplaced 9mm hollow-point bullet...my chances of survival are FAR FAR higher.
Back to the tasers though, look at it this way:
Voltage is like PRESSURE
Amperage is like QUANITY
You know how when you pinch off a garden hose with your finger, the water shoots out further because of increased pressure? Thats akin to what voltage does; allowing electricty to arc, or jump farther. Voltage hurts, but WILL NOT kill.
Amps will kill. Take that same garden hose, and pump ten times the volume of water through it...assuming the hose didn't burst, if you pointed the end at someone, it'd blow a hole right through their body...oops...
These tasers operate on micro-amps of power, something that literally millions of uses have proven is non-lethal in nearly all uses-cases. Imagine if those millions of uses were 9mm rounds instead...or maybe just needles, knives, or any other weapon a perp might have been wielding...not as pretty is it?
Tasers are not the final solution to defensive weapons, but they're a heck of a lot better than being shot with a traditional gun.
tomJul 24th 2008 12:19AM
If I had a choice between using a pistol or a taser....?
RealityJul 23rd 2008 9:38PM
Cops used to be real men NOw there all pussy she man as they have to use tazers when its 5 or 6 cops against 1 what a bunch of pussy cops there are now
No wonder these ticket writers have no respect anymore