Jump to full article: Jacksonville (NC) Daily News, 2004-01-19
Author: Edward L. Sweda Jr.
Intro: the conclusion of that editorial - that a smoker's widow who sues a tobacco company should not receive any payment whatsoever for the lung-cancer death of her husband - is flawed precisely because you are unwilling to hold those who work for a tobacco company to the same standard of bearing responsibility for one's actions.
Harry Frankson, who started smoking in 1954 at the age of 13, has already borne the ultimate responsibility for his actions . . .
He did exactly what the cigarette companies wanted him to do: buy cigarettes, smoke them and buy some more.
Meanwhile, the evidence presented to the Brooklyn jury in this case demonstrated that Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. fraudulently concealed from the public what they knew about the hazards of smoking back in the 1950s and 1960s prior to the time of the warning labels on packages and conspired with other cigarette companies to hide that information.
On Jan. 9, the Brooklyn jury, which was outraged by what they learned about Brown & Williamson's reprehensible corporate misconduct, rendered a punitive damage award of $20 million. The jury's courageous decision upholds the principle that all people, including those who sell, glamorize and profit from a deadly and addictive product, should be held accountable for their actions.
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