GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: After awarding three smokers nearly $13 million, a Florida jury will consider how much the tobacco industry should pay in damages. In Miami, John Zarrella reports Big Tobacco's latest setback.</s>JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The verdict against five tobacco giants has the potential to cripple the industry.</s>JUDGE ROBERT KAYE, MIAMI DADE COUNTY COURT: Was smoking cigarettes a legal cause of Angie Deleveckia (ph) lung cancer and death? Answer: yes.</s>ZARRELLA: In the second phase of a class-action lawsuit, the jury found that cigarettes were responsible for cancer in three smokers. The jury awarded nearly $13 million in compensatory damages, just fractions less than what the plaintiffs were seeking.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm smiling.</s>BOB FARNAN, PLAINTIFF'S HUSBAND: Tobacco lied once again. They were put on the line for what they've been doing.</s>ZARRELLA: The verdict is not a surprise. Last July, this same jury found the industry guilty of making a defective product that caused deadly illnesses. This follow-up decision linking tobacco use to individual smokers paves the way for even greater damage to the industry in a third phase of the trial. The three cases put before the jury were chosen to represent the entire class, estimated at half a million sick Florida smokers. Now, this same jury will be asked to decide punitive damages for the entire class, potentially billions of dollars.</s>DAN WEBB, TOBACCO ATTORNEY: We've always believed that this jury would never award a large amount of punitive damages to hundreds of thousands of Florida smokers whom these jurors know absolutely nothing about.</s>ZARRELLA: The tobacco industry has maintained throughout this long trial that smokers should be held accountable for their actions, that no one forced them to light up. And the industry believes if there is a large punitive judgment, it will ultimately be overturned on appeal. John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.
Florida Jury to Consider How Much Tobacco Industry Should Pay in Damages