As reported by the Associated Press, a jury of ten men and two women were selected Tuesday to hear the nation’s fourth Vioxx trial, in South Texas. Jurors may be deciding if 71-year-old Leonel Garza’s fatal heart attack was the end result of 23 years of heart disease or the Vioxx he took for arm pain for less than a month.
In previous trials, Merck lost a case in a Texas court and won in a New Jersey court. A federal trial ended in a mistrial.
This trial will be unusual because the judge travels among several sparsely populated counties, and plans to hold court for only one week per month. So even though this is the fourth Vioxx trial to begin, another lawsuit scheduled for February in New Jersey may actually finish before the South Texas case.
