South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

Taser International was hit with a $10 million verdict in Charlotte, N.C. last week, for the death of a 17 year old boy who died from cardiac arrest after a police officer tased him in the chest. $10,000,000.00 in actual damages - there was no punitive damages award. In it's press release, the company shows no remorse and gives no indication that it will change its policies - they have announced they will appeal the verdict and are spinning it is a result of the jury's compassion for the dead teenager.

“This was a sad and tragic incident, and our hearts go out to Mr. Turner’s family,” Doug Klint, president and general counsel at Taser International, says in a press release. “We can certainly understand how the jury felt deep compassion for Mr. Turner’s family, and how this compassion may have overwhelmed the scientific evidence presented in this case.”

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company (NASDAQ:TASR) intends to appeal the verdict.

It seems that Taser International does its own studies to demonstrate that its product is not harmful, and their studies show that their product is not harmful - I assume this is a large part of the scientific evidence that they are referring to; in contrast to the independent studies that have been conducted:

The soon-to-be published research, by a group of University of California, San Francisco cardiologists, looked at 50 studies into the health effects of Tasers. About half, or 23 studies, were sponsored by the company.

It revealed 96 per cent of the Taser-funded studies found the weapon was either not harmful or unlikely to be harmful. Non-affiliated research made the same finding in 56 per cent of cases.

''This finding suggests that Taser International-supported research may be severely biased and its legitimacy should [be] questioned,'' the authors stated.

Thankfully, Taser International is undeterred, and continues it's research and development of products that will shape the future of law enforcement. Such as the stun-shotgun it intends to produce in conjunction with Australian electric gun company Metal Storm, called the Maul:

Taser International is teaming up with crazy-ass Australian electric gun company Metal Storm to produce a bowel-liquifying stun shotgun called — seriously — MAUL. Picture, if you will, a 12-gauge shotgun that stacks stun cartridges on top of one another and uses electricity to fire them out, railgun-style. Five of Taser’s XREP cartridges come flying at you from 30 yards away — “semi-automatic fire as fast as the operator can squeeze the trigger,” the company boasted on Thursday.

H/T the Agitator