JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In Miami, the same jury that decided the landmark case determining tobacco companies are responsible for making Florida smokers sick, is now preparing to decide how much the companies should be punished. Huge figures are being bandied about. CNN's Susan Candiotti joins us now from Miami with the latest -- Susan.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Judy. Big, big numbers, remember, this jury has already awarded more than $12 1/2 million in compensatory damages. Now attorneys from Florida smokers insist that America's big five biggest tobacco companies are able to pay at least $157 billion in punitive damages. And they want at least that much. Florida law prohibits companies from being put out of business because of a penalty phase. The attorney representing up to 700,000 Florida smokers, in his first class-action suit ever to go to trial, came out swinging today. In Stanley Rosenblatt's biting style in closing arguments, he told jurors that they are making history and accused the tobacco industry, in his words, of leaving a half century trail of deceit.</s>STANLEY ROSENBLATT, ATTORNEY FOR FLORIDA SMOKERS: These companies knew, they knew 100 percent that the end result of their fraudulent misconduct would be disease and death. Bad enough to take advantage of someone to get some extra money, but they knew in advance that the end result of their fraudulent misconduct would be disease and death. But that was OK with them, as long as their cash registers kept clanging away.</s>CANDIOTTI: Tobacco's big five company executives took the unusual, if not unprecedented step of testifying during this penalty phase. They want the jury to give them a pass on paying anything as punishment, saying that after this jury has found them guilty of making a defective, addictive product that causes cancer. The tobacco companies' executives testified that they've changed their ways and that that $254 billion nationwide settlement is punishment enough. Each side has two days to sum up and the case could go to the jury by the end of the week or early next week. Susan Candiotti, CNN, reporting live in Miami.</s>WOODRUFF: Thank you, Susan.
Landmark Florida Tobacco Suit Penalty Phase Moves to Summation