Runaway juries?

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Last week's award against the tobacco industry was so much bigger than any previous case of punitive damages that it has raised the question of a so-called "runaway jury." After socking five cigarette companies and two institutes with 145 billion dollars, jury foreman Leighton Finegan said he and his five fellow jurors "had a sense of mission." But some legal scholars insist that it's wrong for juries to embark on crusades. They say that decisions about the way whole industries ought to behave should be made by elected legislators. Others contend that when legislatures fail to protect the public against the excesses of big business, the courtroom is the appropriate place to make things right. On this edition, you'll hear from one of the jurors in the tobacco case and questions of whether the jury system has been abused.

On the Newsmaker segment, an attorney for officers implicated in the LAPD Rampart probe.

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney

Producer:

Frances Anderton