<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ben &amp; Jerry's is collaborating with Vox <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">Media</keyword> for a podcast, "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America," which will examine <keyword id="15024" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Race">race</keyword> in America.</li><li>The podcast will look at "legal discrimination and state-sanctioned brutality continued long after slavery ended."</li><li>The series will have six 30-minute episodes, with the first one debuting on September 15. </li></ul>After a summer of civil rights being on the forefront of the minds of many Americans, Ben &amp; Jerry's is working on something new that will further examine the roots of <keyword id="44621" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Racial-discrimination">racial discrimination</keyword> in the US — and its modern-day impact.On Tuesday, the ice cream giant announced it will be launching a podcast about white supremacy in America, called "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America," as part of <a href="https://thewhoweareproject.org">The Who We Are Project</a>, in collaboration with Vox Media."In the wake of George Floyd's murder, America faces a racial reckoning — one that requires an honest look at the American history that has allowed and encouraged white supremacy to thrive for the last 400 years," <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-podcast-examines-the-lesser-known-history-of-racism-in-america-301121337.html?tc=eml_cleartime">the companies said in a joint statement</a>. The podcast is based off <keyword id="853040" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="ACLU">ACLU</keyword> Deputy Legal Director <keyword id="9871965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="jeffery-robinson">Jeffery Robinson</keyword>'s presentation, which shares the same title as the upcoming podcast. Robinson, whose work is also being made into a documentary scheduled to be released this year, is also the director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality.The podcast, hosted by author and podcaster Carvell Wallace, will examine how "legal discrimination and state-sanctioned brutality continued long after slavery ended, profoundly limiting Black Americans' ability to gain access to jobs, housing, education, and health care; or to create and accumulate wealth," according to the announcement.The 30-minute episodes will be released in six parts, with the first episode debuting on September 15. Every episode will also include a concrete action listeners can participate in to effect change.This isn't Ben &amp; Jerry's first foray into civil rights. Earlier this summer, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ben-and-jerrys-celebrated-for-campaign-against-white-supremacy-2020-6">the company made a public statement denouncing the actions that led to the police killing of George Floyd</a>, including calling on US lawmakers to pass H.R. 40, which would create the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans and examine the effects of slavery from 1619 until present day. The company also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ben-and-jerrys-debut-flavor-backing-criminal-justice-reform-2019-9">released a "Justice ReMix'd"</a> flavor in 2019, to highlight structural racism and issues within the criminal justice system.

Ben & Jerry's is launching a podcast about white supremacy in America, after calling for civil rights reforms earlier this summer

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5da0d846cc4a0a17d146bb3e-2400/alshon-jeffery.jpg" border="0" alt="Alshon Jeffery" data-mce-source="Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports" />Bill Streicher-USA TODAY SportsThis week, we like Matt Ryan, Phillip Lindsay, Alshon Jeffery, and more to outplay their prices in DraftKings and FanDuel.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Week 6 of the NFL season is here.</li><li>For daily fantasy players, the difference between winning and losing the day comes down to finding the best value plays at every position.</li><li>This week, we like Matt Ryan, Phillip Lindsay, Alshon Jeffery, and more to outplay their prices in DraftKings and FanDuel.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul>Daily fantasy sports are all about finding value.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/draftkings-week-5-best-lineup-value-2019-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last week</a>, our picks included running back Sony Michel, wide receiver Allen Robinson, and quarterback Kirk Cousins, all of whom finished as top-1o players at their position.This week, we're back at it, diving deep into the DraftKings player pool to find players that might be undervalued and can help you fill out your lineup when you feel the need to overspend at other positions.Take a look below for our best value picks for your Week 6 DraftKings lineups.

The best value plays in your DraftKings lineup for Week 6 of the NFL season

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/56e6f57d91058423008b6307-951-713/screen shot 2016-03-14 at 1.31.01 pm.png" alt="cowboy shadow" data-mce-source="Flickr/ Clyde Robinson" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clyderob/100499610/in/photolist-9T62U-7UDn6h-8UNp1R-rPn4Xt-bkagyK-73AeKc-8fauLh-6XiuCC-j6dH8E-dtthNT-rnafGu-cyM4Z-kNHY-DpWgnN-8qhks9-9c1UmK-dVjCA2-3aQm8c-8jF9QR-6kGzzc-arRfBT-oN3Nn-jmkwyY-4BdFnN-6Qs4aB-4kg9UF-7Q9NKx-4ujTif-9dozSF-aYiwPP-4kg9V2-6a4wRJ-81Qh5G-pJJofY-7pzvp2-7hanLM-59uHfV-CPfgZy-3oGa2E-59yWyb-64rHUp-82dYiU-5ZEXbL-pLA5Nx-GcPRS-59uH7r-b7mQRr-c2j5tN-59yWX3-59uHte" /><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/clyderob/100499610/in/photolist-9T62U-7UDn6h-8UNp1R-rPn4Xt-bkagyK-73AeKc-8fauLh-6XiuCC-j6dH8E-dtthNT-rnafGu-cyM4Z-kNHY-DpWgnN-8qhks9-9c1UmK-dVjCA2-3aQm8c-8jF9QR-6kGzzc-arRfBT-oN3Nn-jmkwyY-4BdFnN-6Qs4aB-4kg9UF-7Q9NKx-4ujTif-9dozSF-aYiwPP-4kg9V2-6a4wRJ-81Qh5G-pJJofY-7pzvp2-7hanLM-59uHfV-CPfgZy-3oGa2E-59yWyb-64rHUp-82dYiU-5ZEXbL-pLA5Nx-GcPRS-59uH7r-b7mQRr-c2j5tN-59yWX3-59uHte">Flickr/ Clyde Robinson</a>He's back.</div></div></div>Sage Kelly, the former Jefferies healthcare investment banker who resigned amid a messy divorce, has returned to Wall Street.He's been hired by Cantor Fitzgerald as a senior managing director and head of its investment-banking division, <a href="http://pagesix.com/2016/03/13/notorious-banker-may-be-returning-to-wall-street/?_ga=1.192113314.968500718.1427039603">Page Six reports.</a>"We have done our due diligence and we are pleased he is joining the firm," a rep for the bank told Page Six.Kelly is expected to start this week, the report said.In 2014, Kelly's (now ex-) wife Christina Di Mauro Kelly made allegations as part of a divorce proceeding that sounded like something straight out of "The Wolf Of Wall Street." In <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sage-and-christina-kelly-divorce-papers-2014-10">a 26-page sworn affidavit</a>, she accused Kelly of multiple instances of drug use and extramarital sex, including an alleged foursome with a client. Her affidavit also made accusations against a number of Jefferies bankers, all of whom categorically denied her allegations.Shortly after the allegations were circulated in the media, Sage Kelly took a leave of absence from Jefferies and eventually <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sage-kelly-said-to-resign-from-jefferies-2014-12">resigned.</a>All of the Jefferies bankers named in her affidavit took and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jefferies-ceo-kelly-divorce-memo-2014-10">passed a voluntary drug test</a>.The divorce was ultimately settled for an undisclosed sum. In a signed statement, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/christina-kelly-apologizes-to-jefferies-2014-11">Di Mauro blamed the media</a> for "inaccurate, untrue or hyperbolic" things that were written about her ex and Jefferies bankers. She also said that Kelly is a "an individual of high integrity."

Sage Kelly - the banker from one of Wall Street's messiest divorces - just landed a huge job

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5980a3f8b50ab11c008b6216-1775/rtx3b2eq.jpg" border="0" alt="bonfire celebrate" data-mce-caption="Amid the rise of red-hot passive investing, it's getting increasingly important for traders to nail earnings season." data-mce-source="Reuters / Clodagh Kilcoyne" />Reuters / Clodagh KilcoyneFacebook's house is on fire</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Wall Street analysts were pretty positive about Facebook's second-quarter earnings, which mostly beat expectations.</li><li>This defies belief, given the bonfire of a $5 billion penalty, a $100 million SEC fine, an FTC antitrust probe, a wider competition investigation, and political threats to break up the firm.</li><li>But analysts took the bad news in their stride.</li><li>They pointed to continued growth, Facebook's ability to predict and shape regulation, and its ingenuity in offsetting declines in the core Facebook app with new services and formats.</li><li>Facebook ultimately doesn't have much competition, and advertisers aren't going anywhere either.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>In the past 48 hours, Facebook has faced challenges that could sink another company.It has agreed to cough up $5 billion in a US settlement over Cambridge Analytica; become the subject to a Federal Trade Commission antitrust probe and a Department of Justice probe into competition; and paid a $100 million fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission.And all this against the backdrop of Facebook having to justify the way it treats content moderators after <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/19/18681845/facebook-moderator-interviews-video-trauma-ptsd-cognizant-tampa">a horrifying article from The Verge,</a> and Mark Zuckerberg's cofounder and one-time friend, Chris Hughes, turning on the company and calling for its breakup.In short, Facebook's house is on fire. Not that you know it.In the wake of the firm's second-quarter results on Wednesday, Wall Street was universally bullish and its share price is up. Multiple analysts raised their target price for Facebook and were generally optimistic about the company's prospects.So what's going on?<h2>Facebook anticipated the $5 billion penalty, indicating it has a good handle on how it will be treated by global regulators</h2>Facebook reported in its last quarterly earnings that it <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/24/18514805/facebook-q1-2019-earnings-ftc-record-fine-privacy-violations-3-billion">had set aside $3 billion for a potential penalty</a> from the FTC over the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. The company predicted that the settlement could be as much as $5 billion.That prediction turned out to be correct.Wall Street tends to like consistency and predictability, and Facebook's ability to anticipate regulatory behavior and head off any surprises is, therefore, reassuring.This is testament to Facebook's increased lobbying efforts, both at home and abroad. These efforts ensure Facebook is close to the people in power, and can influence their thinking. In 2018, Facebook spent a record $12.6 million on lobbying Washington - small change when we're talking about influencing fines of billions.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d39975648c50a49f6786a22-1584/screen shot 2018-05-24 at 130025.png" border="0" alt="Emmanuel Macron Mark Zuckerberg" data-mce-source="Reuters" />ReutersMark Zuckerberg with Emmanuel Macron.</div></div></div>Zuckerberg explicitly showed off about being close to the world's decision-makers during the earnings call too, namechecking French president Emmanuel Macron in his opening remarks. Here's what he said:"This quarter I spent time in Europe talking with policymakers about how this could work. I met with President Macron to discuss a framework for harmful content. This is an area where I believe there could be an effective public process led by democratically elected governments in Europe, and perhaps in the US, a process for industry standards and self-regulation."In other words, Facebook has a direct role in shaping the global regulation which might hurt it.Analysts were accordingly dismissive of any threat. "While regulatory scrutiny is almost certain to remain high, we believe the risk to Facebook's business from broad public concern about privacy has passed," wrote analysts at KeyBanc."Further, we see little in current or proposed regulatory actions that we believe meaningfully threatens the competitive advantages Facebook holds in reach, variety, targeting ability, and measurement. This creates the potential for sentiment to improve on the name, which could drive further upside in the shares."Analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey added: "We view the settlements with the FTC over Consent Decree and the SEC positively as they remove two major regulatory roadblocks, increase privacy compliance/oversight without materially altering the way FB collects/uses consumer data."<h2>Wall Street's favorite tech metric is growth, and Facebook is growing</h2>Facebook mostly beat analyst expectations, reporting a 28% year-on-year jump in revenue to $16.89 billion, and earnings per share of $0.91 - impacted by the FTC deal. Daily active users were up 8% to 1.59 billion, while monthly active users were also up 8% to 2.41 billion.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ftc-settlement-erosion-of-mark-zuckerberg-power-2019-7?r=US&amp;IR=T">Facebook's humbling deal with the FTC is the biggest assault on Mark Zuckerberg's power in the firm's history</a>CFO Dave Wehner sounded notes of caution, warning of growth in the firm's expenses and deceleration in revenue growth. But analysts at Jefferies were so impressed by Facebook's second-quarter performance that they questioned Wehner's warnings."Considering the improvements FB made to core Facebook and continued momentum on Instagram, we question how much FB's revenue growth will decelerate in 2H19/1H20," they wrote.<h2>Facebook's only competition is itself, and advertisers aren't going anywhere else</h2>Some analysts did acknowledge that Facebook faces regulatory threats. But for now, those threats don't seem to be impacting the core way Facebook makes money: advertising. Until one directly affects the other, analyst bullishness is unlikely to let up.They particularly called out Facebook's "Stories" format on Instagram, a format popular with users and advertisers alike. This shift demonstrates that Facebook is able to balance out the decline in its core Facebook app with different services and formats - and means it's less likely to face any threats from external competition.There's also the fact that people are increasingly buying items through Instagram, putting Facebook in <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/03/instagram-payments/">a good position to shift into payments and commerce</a>.Analysts at Jefferies wrote: "Emerging formats like Stories and Shopping are gaining more traction with advertisers, and we believe they will drive the business longer term... We believe that as demand grows for Stories, we will begin to see a more material contribution from this format looking ahead to 2020. While Shopping is still an early opportunity for FB, our checks indicate that advertisers are seeing large returns and want to spend more ad dollars on the format." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-area-51-autec-in-the-bahamas-2016-10">The Navy has its own Area 51 and it's right in the middle of the Bahamas</a></h3> <div> <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/XwzxJ81L-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script> </div> </div>

Facebook's house is on fire, but there are 3 reasons why Wall Street thinks it will emerge unscathed

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/563d14d0dd08958c6b8b45e2-1200-900/dislike-button-facebook.jpg" alt="dislike button facebook" data-mce-source="Facebook and Melia Robinson/Tech Insider" />Facebook and Melia Robinson/Tech InsiderDislike.</div></div></div>Change is scary. No one knows that better than Facebook's director of design, Julie Zhuo.While on stage at Fusion's<a href="http://realfuturefair.com/"> Real Future Fair</a>, Zhuo recounted the joys and challenges of shaping the world's largest social network. With <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/05/so-many-faces-on-this-book/">1.55 billion users</a> and counting, Facebook finds it almost impossible to craft a product that pleases everyone.But Zhuo confirmed there's one request from users that the company has heard loud and clear."If you have a post, and the only button that people can take action on is 'Like,' that implies that the content should be positive or should be something that's likeable," Zhuo said. "One of the things we've heard people tell us over and over again is they want a 'Dislike' button, because not everything is likeable content."Earlier this fall, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250678?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur%29">confirmed during a Town Hall meeting</a> that the company is working on it, though <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/09/17/emoji-button/?utm_content=buffer6f408&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer#.ehzwh9:c2k1">TechCrunch speculate</a>d that Facebook could bypass the Dislike button in favor of an emoji set."We've worked on it in earnest," Zhuo said.Earlier this week, Twitter rocked the boat when it swapped its star-shaped "Fave" button for a red heart "Like." Users went berserk online.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">1/changing <a href="https://twitter.com/twitter">@Twitter</a>'s star to a heart is the worst product decision in the history of the internet; makes a bookmark into an endorsement.- jason (@Jason) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jason/status/661594921757986816">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en" data-conversation="none">Where is the blog post that explains why they'd take a feature we all understood, and had adapted in interesting ways, and made sophomoric.- Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/661559805341908993">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/twitter">@twitter</a> Ctrl+Z , Please.- ?????? (@bob_johnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/bob_johnson/status/661559803597029377">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote><script async="" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>When asked about the controversy, Zhuo had nothing but sympathy for the designers at Twitter. She compared it to entering a friend's room and rearranging the furniture without permission."People's initial reaction is, 'Why did you go change my stuff?'" Zhuo said. "It takes time to figure out if it's for better or worse." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kids-dont-use-facebook-2015-10">We asked a bunch of kids what they think about Facebook</a></h3> <div> <div> <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ttaTNzcTrV3D2fg3UQRLRE5tNi_izNGO" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> <script> if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; } RunFunctions.push(function() { var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'ttaTNzcTrV3D2fg3UQRLRE5tNi_izNGO',{ autoplay: 'false' }); }); </script> <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div> </div> <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script> </div>

Facebook's director of design reveals the one change users request the most

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53cd8c3f6da811ba5703fb77-1200-858/rtr3zkwu.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Cynthia Robinson " width="480" />Shannon Stapleton/ReutersCynthia Robinson, the widow of Michael Johnson Sr. who died in 1996 at the age of 36 of lung cancer, poses with her attorneys Christopher Chestnut, right, and Willie Gary.</div></div>A Florida jury recently awarded Cynthia Robinson <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jury-says-rj-reynolds-has-to-pay-23-billion-to-widow-of-longtime-smoker-2014-7?utm_content=buffer372f5&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">$23.6 billion in punitive damages</a> in her lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., filed on behalf of her husband who died of lung cancer at 36 from smoking since he was 13 years old. Robinson had argued R.J. Reynolds intentionally hid the health hazards caused by its product, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/business/jury-awards-23-6-billion-in-florida-smoking-case.html?_r=1">according to The New York Times</a>.
Unlike <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/actual_damages">compensatory damages</a> where money is awarded to compensate for proven harm, loss, and injury, <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/punitive_damages">punitive damages</a> are intended as punishment for a defendant's especially harmful behavior. 
Although R.J. Reynolds is planning to file a motion for a reduction in the verdict, $23.6 billion is an astounding sum of money for a jury to award one individual, far larger than the $16.8 million in compensatory damages also awarded to Robinson. J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R. J. Reynolds, called the award a "runaway verdict" in a statement quoted by The New York Times.
"The damages awarded in this case are grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword>," he said. "This verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented." 
Business Insider spoke with George Washington University public interest law professor <a href="http://www.law.gwu.edu/faculty/profile.aspx?id=1759">John F. Banzhaf III</a> about the significance of the jury's decision. Banzhaf is a legal advocate with a clear anti-tobacco agenda.
Banzhaf says $16.8 million in compensatory damages isn't enough of a punishment, because big tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds consider that mere "pocket change." "The only way you're going to get them beyond the point of, 'Hey, this is just the cost of doing business,' is you got to hit them with something big," he said. 
So a large award in punitive damages was necessary in this case to deter R.J. Reynolds from conduct the jury members decided was intentional and particularly egregious, according to Banzhaf. "They might be more reluctant when they're marketing it to children, they might be more reluctant about continuing to lie and deceive and trying to trick people into it, and using advertising techniques and marketing techniques which are still aimed at kids," Banzhaf said. 
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-14/dow-loses-1-2-billion-verdict-as-top-2013-award.html">massive jury verdicts were on the rise</a> with juries handing out three awards of more than $1 billion in 2013 alone. That article noted that sizes of jury awards had increased after the financial crisis and possibly stemmed from anti-corporate sentiment. After all, many defendants in big product liability cases are corporations. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs are human beings like the people serving on the jury.
Anti-corporate bias is a difficult thing to detect during the jury selection process, known as voir dire, attorney Victor E. Schwartz previously told <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-18/defective-product-awards-rise-as-u-s-jurors-slap-companies-with-verdicts.html">Bloomberg</a>.
"It's a blue-collar feeling that corporate America doesn't really care, and that's difficult to eliminate in voir dire," <a href="http://www.shb.com/attorney_detail.aspx?id=16">Schwartz</a> told Bloomberg. 
The jury's verdict of $23.6 billion in punitive damages was the most granted in thousands of similar Florida cases, which stemmed from a 2006 ruling barring smokers from filing class-action lawsuits but allowing them to sue as individuals. 
"The jury's decision in Robinson's case will likely lead to more punitive judgments in the billions. "What it does is it emboldens other juries because people who make up other juries will have heard about this," Banzhaf said. "It tends to normalize it in the sense that punitive damage verdicts now over a billion dollars were probably unheard of about 20 years ago. Today, they're becoming more common place because juries are hearing that others did it. So in that generalized sense it sets a precedent."

Here's The Logic Behind A Jury's Decision To Award $23 Billion To One Florida Woman 

<img class="float_right" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53cd8c3f6da811ba5703fb77-1200-858/rtr3zkwu.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="Cynthia Robinson " width="480" />A Florida jury recently awarded Cynthia Robinson <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jury-says-rj-reynolds-has-to-pay-23-billion-to-widow-of-longtime-smoker-2014-7?utm_content=buffer372f5&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer">$23.6 billion in punitive damages</a> in her lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., filed on behalf of her husband who died of lung cancer at 36 from smoking since he was 13 years old. Robinson had argued R.J. Reynolds intentionally hid the health hazards caused by its product, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/business/jury-awards-23-6-billion-in-florida-smoking-case.html?_r=1">according to The New York Times</a>.
Unlike <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/actual_damages">compensatory damages</a> where money is awarded to compensate for proven harm, loss, and injury, <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/punitive_damages">punitive damages</a> are intended as punishment for a defendant's especially harmful behavior. 
R.J. Reynolds is planning to file a motion for a reduction in the verdict, and judges have the authority to significantly reduce damages awards. (Just last year, a judge <a href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/03/federal-judge-reduces-damages-award-that-samsung-must-pay-apple.php">reduced a $1.05 billion judgement for Apple </a>against Samsung to $450 million.)
Still, $23.6 billion is an astounding sum of money for a jury to award one individual in the first place, far larger than the $16.8 million in compensatory damages also awarded to Robinson. J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R. J. Reynolds, called the award a "runaway verdict" in a statement quoted by The New York Times.
"The damages awarded in this case are grossly excessive and impermissible under state and constitutional <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword>," he said. "This verdict goes far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness and is completely inconsistent with the evidence presented." 
Business Insider spoke with George Washington University public interest law professor <a href="http://www.law.gwu.edu/faculty/profile.aspx?id=1759">John F. Banzhaf III</a> about the significance of the jury's decision. Banzhaf is a legal advocate with a clear anti-tobacco agenda.
Banzhaf says $16.8 million in compensatory damages isn't enough of a punishment, because big tobacco companies like R.J. Reynolds consider that mere "pocket change." "The only way you're going to get them beyond the point of, 'Hey, this is just the cost of doing business,' is you got to hit them with something big," he said. 
So a large award in punitive damages was necessary in this case to deter R.J. Reynolds from conduct the jury members decided was intentional and particularly egregious, according to Banzhaf. "They might be more reluctant when they're marketing it to children, they might be more reluctant about continuing to lie and deceive and trying to trick people into it, and using advertising techniques and marketing techniques which are still aimed at kids," Banzhaf said. 
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-14/dow-loses-1-2-billion-verdict-as-top-2013-award.html">massive jury verdicts were on the rise</a> with juries handing out three awards of more than $1 billion in 2013 alone. That article noted that sizes of jury awards had increased after the financial crisis and possibly stemmed from anti-corporate sentiment. After all, many defendants in big product liability cases are corporations. Meanwhile, the plaintiffs are human beings like the people serving on the jury.
Anti-corporate bias is a difficult thing to detect during the jury selection process, known as voir dire, attorney Victor E. Schwartz previously told <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-18/defective-product-awards-rise-as-u-s-jurors-slap-companies-with-verdicts.html">Bloomberg</a>.
"It's a blue-collar feeling that corporate America doesn't really care, and that's difficult to eliminate in voir dire," <a href="http://www.shb.com/attorney_detail.aspx?id=16">Schwartz</a> told Bloomberg. 
The jury's verdict of $23.6 billion in punitive damages was the most granted in thousands of similar Florida cases, which stemmed from a 2006 ruling barring smokers from filing class-action lawsuits but allowing them to sue as individuals. 
"The jury's decision in Robinson's case will likely lead to more punitive judgments in the billions. "What it does is it emboldens other juries because people who make up other juries will have heard about this," Banzhaf said. "It tends to normalize it in the sense that punitive damage verdicts now over a billion dollars were probably unheard of about 20 years ago. Today, they're becoming more common place because juries are hearing that others did it. So in that generalized sense it sets a precedent."

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