Tobacco.org

Tobacco Companies May Win Latest Case, Analysts Say (Update3) 

Analysts said the proximity of the Memphis trial to tobacco- growing country and the requirement for a unanimous verdict favor the defendants.

The tobacco companies conspired to hide facts about smoking and designed cigarettes to enhance addiction, Norwood (Woody) Wilner, the attorney for the families, told the jury in closing arguments today. ``Everything they did was intentional. There were no accidents,'' said Wilner. ``The cigarette companies knew about the risks and concealed and hid the facts.'' . . . The companies are being sued by the families of Bobby Newcomb, who held various jobs including truck driver and dock worker and was 64 when he died in 1998; James Karney, a truck driver who was 71 when he died in 1996; and Florence Bruch, a homemaker who died in 1996 at age 64.

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