How Scott Schlesinger Closed With a Song That Set up a $157M Verdict in a Wrongful Death Trial

A powerful conclusion to your closing argument remains strong in a jury’s minds once they deliberate. In a wrongful death trial against R.J. Reynolds, Scott Schlesinger wrapped his portion of closing arguments with a song that set the stage for a monumental verdict.

Ed Caprio died of respiratory disease in 2018 following decades of smoking that began when he was a teen. In Florida’s first wrongful death tobacco case brought to trial against Reynolds by a same-sex spouse, Caprio’s husband aimed the tobacco company’s concealment of smoking’s dangers led to Caprio’s death. 

During his portion of closings at trial in which jurors would decide whether punitives were potentially warranted, Schlesinger, of Schlesinger Law Offices P.A., walked jurors through evidence he said showed the company and others marketed to children throughout much of the 20th century. And he argued Reynolds and others continued to employ similar tactics today. 

“Same as it ever was,” Schlesinger repeated, quoting the Talking Heads hit “Once in a Lifetime,” before claiming non-party Philip Morris’s purchase of Juul , a company whose vaping devices are widely used among youth, showed a continuation of industry-wide teen marketing.

But Schlesinger turned to another source of musical inspiration to wrap his portion of closings. Schlesinger said he couldn’t stop thinking about Caprio and the Jimmy Nash classic “I Can See Clearly Now.”

“My heart’s going like a rabbit now. I’m as jumpy as a cat on a hot tin roof,” Schlesinger said to laughter from the jurors before breaking into song. “I can see clearly now the rain has gone. I can see all obstacles in my way.”  

As he sings, you can hear others sing a few lines along with him . 

“It gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiney day,” Schlesinger sings, before adding “Be our rainbow,” and taking his seat. 

The jury awarded $157 million total, including more than $9 million in compensatory damages and $148 million in punitives.