A jury awarded Thelma Aycock $5.9 million in her Florida wrongful-death action against R.J. Reynolds, finding that her husband’s lung cancer and death were caused by addiction to cigarettes. Reynolds challenged the exclusion of evidence about Richard Aycock’s alcohol abuse, arguing that it could support alternative causes of death, affect comparative fault, and bear on damages; it also challenged denial of a continuance to retain its chosen counsel. The Eleventh Circuit held that a defendant may offer possible alternative causes to rebut the plaintiff’s proof without establishing that an alternative was more likely than not. Richard’s alcohol-use evidence was highly probative of causation, comparative fault, and the relationship-based damages, and its probative value was not substantially outweighed by unfair prejudice under Rule 403. Excluding it materially impaired Reynolds’s defense, requiring a new trial. The court rejected Reynolds’s due-process challenge under controlling circuit precedent and did not reach its continuance argument. It reversed the judgment and remanded for a new trial.