Taser Stunned
Paul Marks
A US court has found Taser guilty of lax training practices, but doesn't query the stun
gun's use.
Taser International, the maker of the electric-shock stun gun, has seen off 127 lawsuits from
families who have claimed that its 50,000-volt weapon, in the hands of police, killed a relative.
In all but one case the firm's lawyers have successfully argued that mitigating circumstances
- mainly the victim's alleged drug use or pre-existing cardiac condition - meant they would
have died from the trauma of being physically subdued by police officers in any case. In the
one case the company lost, it paid out $150,000 in damages. But on 19 July the Arizona-based firm lost a major decision when a jury in a US District Court ruled that Darryl Turner, a
17-year-old shop assistant in Charlotte, North Carolina, had been. killed by a police taser after
receiving an extended 37-second shock. The ruling orders the firm to pay Turner's family $10
million in damages.
Amnesty International .estimates that 450 people in the US have died after being tased
since 2001. It welcomed the verdict. 'This important verdict confirms our long-held position
that tasers are potentially lethal and therefore should only be used in a limited set of instances
where there is a very serious and real threat to loss of life,' says Oliver Sprague, Amnesty's UK
arms program director. The court's ruling does not question the safety of the weapon itself.
Instead, it finds the firm negligent for improperly instructing and training the officers of the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD).
The Turner case concerned an incident in a Charlotte supermarket on 20 March 2008.
Police were called when Turner, an employee, had an argument with a manager. When Turner
lunged at a CMPD officer, the latter fired the taser probes into Turner's chest. He then kept the
current applied for 37 seconds. After that, Turner was not moving. The Mecklenburg County
medical examiner found he had died from a cardiac arrest.
This is not how a taser is supposed to be used. When you see a taser demonstration,
the volunteer usually gets a half-second burst - enough to fell most people with excruciating
muscle spasms. In practice, officers use a 5-second burst. This can be repeated - and often
is - but officers should be well aware that research shows multiple bursts are a health risk. In
2009, despite winning legal challenges, Taser International revised its training manuals to warn
users that they should avoid firing at people's chests owing to the proximity of the heart to the
electric pulses.
Toxicology tests revealed no drugs in Turner's bloodstream and that his heart was in good
shape. Death was caused by 'agitated state, stress and use of a conducted energy device',
according to the medical examiner. Taser International disputed this, arguing Turner had a preexisting risk of cardiac arrhythmias of a type exacerbated...by drugs - and that he was carrying
marijuana. What was clear. to the jury, however, was that the CMPD officer should have been
trained to avoid the chest and they found Taser International had been negligent in not doing
this. John Burton, legal counsel for Turner's parents, proclaimed the case would mark the
beginning of the end for the energy weapon. 'I think the taser is on the way out,' he told New
Scientist.
When contacted by
New Scientist, Taser International said it plans to appeal the verdict.
But whatever the outcome, the use of tasers remains controversial. Just hours after the Turner
verdict was delivered, another CMPD officer tased a 21-year-old man. He died an hour later.
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