Cite as: 509 U. S. 443 (1993)
O'Connor, J., dissenting
worse, unlike the jurors or the primary plaintiffs, TXO was not from West Virginia. It was an interloper, from the large State of Texas. As the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia has recognized, the temptation to transfer wealth from out-of-state corporate defendants to in-state plaintiffs can be quite strong. See Garnes v. Fleming Landfill, Inc., 186 W. Va. 656, 665, 413 S. E. 2d 897, 906 (1991) (Excess jury discretion "[i]nevitably . . . leads to increasing efforts to redistribute wealth from without the state to within"; cases involving large awards typically pit local plaintiffs against "out-of-state (often faceless, publicly held) corporations"). That court speaks from experience. The three highest punitive damages awards ever affirmed in West Virginia, including this one, were assessed against relatively wealthy out-of-state defendants. Jarvis v. Modern Woodmen of America, 185 W. Va. 305, 406 S. E. 2d 736 (1991); Berry v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 181 W. Va. 168, 381 S. E. 2d 367 (1989).
Counsels' arguments, however, converted that grave risk
of prejudice into a near certainty. Repeatedly they reminded the jury that TXO was from another State. Repeatedly they told the jury about TXO's massive wealth. And repeatedly they told the jury that it could do anything it thought "fair." The opening line from rebuttal set the tone. "Ladies and gentleman of the jury," one attorney began, "this greedy bunch from down in Texas still doesn't understand this case." Tr. 773. Playing on images of Texans as overrich gamblers who profit by chance rather than work, he referred to TXO shortly thereafter as a bunch of "Texas high rollers, wildcatters." Id., at 777. Finally, counsel drove the point home yet one more time, comparing TXO to an obviously wealthy out-of-town visitor who refuses to put money in the parking meter to help pay for community service:
"Well, what is fair? . . . If someone comes to town and intentionally doesn't put a quarter in the meter, stays
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