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Electric shock "non-lethal" weapons have become popular in law enforcement circles, with the most popular - the Taser - leading the way. It's even available in pretty pink as a consumer product bought at house parties.But last Friday the Taser juggernaut hit its first speed bump. A jury in the US District Court for Northern California held Taser International responsible for the 2005 death of Robert Heston who had been repeatedly electric shocked by Taser-wielding police officers in Salinas, California - awarding his family $6.2 million in damages.The family's attorney called it a "landmark decision" as it's the first time in more than 60 cases that Taser has lost such a lawsuit. At issue in this case was the fact that Taser had allegedly not informed the police of the risks of using multiple shocks to subdue somebody. The man in question was thought to have been on methamphetamine and the officers gave him stun blast after stun blast. Bloomberg's court report is here."The plaintiffs alleged that the muscle contractions associated with an extended simultaneous discharge from the three Tasers it took to subdue Mr. Heston, together with his methamphetamine intoxication and protracted violent activity, contributed to metabolic stress that ultimately lead to the death," Taser International said in statement. The company, whose stock price plunged on the news, plans to appeal.This risk of multiple shocks should surprise no-one. New Scientist readers will know that we have long highlighted the risks of such abuse. Graham Cooper, head of the UK's Defence Sub-committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons, told us: "If they have to shock somebody five or six times, there is something fundamentally wrong with their approach".Doug Klint, vice president and general counsel for Taser International, says Heston's death fits "the well established symptom pattern for methamphetamine intoxication and associated excited delirium." This is always Taser's mantra in such cases: that the drugs somebody had taken had so compromised their heart that they would have died anyway. But that's based on tests on animal (guinea pigs, pigs and sheep) tissue in vitro - not even live animals.There is very little evidence that excited delirium actually exists - it only ever comes up in cases when the police are involved in trying to restrain somebody and is often cited in deaths-in-custody cases. Wikipedia has a good summary of the issues from all sides.Right now, Taser is set to branch off into new fields - with a Taser landmine, a robot equipped with stunguns (a joint venture with iRobot) and an electric-shock projectile that's fired from a shotgun.The firm's entry into these new markets will now depend on it presenting a convincing body of research that shows people die from "excited delirium" when they have not been tased. Because the last time I looked, being out of your head on drugs did not carry a death sentence.Paul Marks, technology correspondent , New Scientist