Deaths From Tasers: Some Taser Wrongful Death Lawsuits

More and more, police communities are using tasers as a safe and effective way to bring down those who they believe are potentially threatening. However, as deaths start to pile up because of the use of tasers, and the wrongful death lawsuits start to grow, either the police or the makers of tasers are going to have to figure out if it’s worth it.

A new case about to go to trial involves the Rospaueville, CA police and a man named Paul Martinez, Jr. During a traffic stop, they found drugs on him and arrested him. He was also already high on something, possibly methamphetamines, and was highly agitated and, the police say, combative. The police hit him with the taser twice, and he stopped breathing and was pronounced dead later at the hospital. In this case, it’s thought that shocking his system while potentially high on a stimulant, which would have already had his heart racing, might have been too much, and the lawsuit will state that the police should have known that it might be a dangerous thing to do in this situation.

The company that makes the tasers, Taser International, claims that tasers are safe, and that complications come either when police don’t properly use them or those who they’re used on have medical issues no one could have known about. They’ve been exonerated in an overwhelming majority of cases where they’ve been named as a defendant, but not all of them.

For instance, there’s the case of Robert Heston, Jr in 2008, where the circumstances are much like the above case, only Heston was also intoxicated and found to have an enlarged heart due to long term drug abuse. The findings came against the company saying they were 15% responsible for his death as a contributory, and thus has to pay 15% of a $6 million case.

And the numbers of people dying are increasing. Overall, it’s still considered a much safer alternative than beating someone over the head with a baton, and no one is excusing the behavior. It’s even hard to figure out how police overall are supposed to determine which kind of stimulant someone might be on. That seems to be the issue in general, though, that maybe when someone is on a stimulant that they shouldn’t be getting tasered to begin with. The police counter that is when they need to use the taser the most, to help put suspects under control.

At some point, there might have to be an overall ruling by state supreme courts, possibly the U.S. Supreme Court, to determine whether liability against police needs to be waved in most situations, although the fear of abuse might temper that resolution. The other option is to consider NOT doing drugs, and getting crazy on the police, therefore no NEED to get hit with the taser….bro!