Texas Supreme Court tosses $15.8 million verdict in case involving illegal immigrant

[Mikell]

Political correctness raises it's ugly head again.


The Texas Supreme Court threw out a $15.8 million verdict Friday, ruling unanimously that lawyers improperly introduced evidence that a gravel truck driver involved in a 2002 accident that killed four members of a Wise County family was an illegal immigrant.

By repeatedly mentioning the truck driver's immigration status, lawyers for the Hughes family clearly sought to inflame jurors' passions against the driver and his employer, TXI Transportation Co., the court ruled.

"Such appeals to racial and ethnic prejudices, whether 'explicit and brazen' or 'veiled and subtle,' cannot be tolerated because they undermine the very basis of our judicial process," the 8-0 opinion written by Justice David Medina said.

On a clear, dry day in December 2002, Kimberly Hughes was driving four family members to Fort Worth for Christmas shopping. Returning home to Paradise, about 30 miles to the northwest, their GMC Yukon sideswiped a fully loaded gravel truck traveling in the opposite direction.

Only 1-year-old Jagr Royse survived. His grandmother, Hughes; his great-grandmother; and his uncle were killed. So was his mom, Afton Hughes Royse, who was pregnant with twins.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/...ct-348194.html