Googling, Tweeting and Friending Causing Mistrials!

[3113]

Really!

Enough with the tweets, the blogs, the Internet searches. That's the message being communicated by courts across the country as jurors using their portable electronic devices continue to cause mistrials, overturned convictions and chaotic delays in court proceedings. Last year a San Francisco Superior Court judge dismissed 600 potential jurors after several acknowledged going online to research the criminal case before them.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon challenged her misdemeanor embezzlement conviction after discovering five jurors "friended" one another on Facebook during the trial. And a federal judge in Florida declared a mistrial after eight jurors admitted Web surfing about a drug case.

But the rules for jury service in state and federal courts alike are evolving to grapple with this 21st century issue. New jury instructions are being adopted and electronics are being banned from courtrooms. In January, the federal court's top administrative office, the Judicial Conference of the United States, issued so-called "Twitter instructions" to every federal judge, which are designed to be read to jurors at the start of the trial and before deliberations. "You may not use any electronic device or media" in connection with the case, the recommended federal instructions admonish. They also bar visits to "any Internet chat room, blog, or website such as Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter."

Full story here.

Which means all you Jurors, get outta here right now! No Internet Chat Rooms. All you're allowed to do is read the erotica.

 

[al_Ussa]

Hahaha freaking awesome. Just awesome... that will cause a whole new list of problems for the state won't it?

 

[JackLuis]

The twisted screw of Technology ?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Not to mention spreading rumors faster than the speed of thought. A law professor demonstrated the fact by telling a class that Chief Justice Roberts was considering retirement at the beginning of the lecture and then advising them that it was a lie half way through. Too late! Before he had gotten to the retraction, the story was all over the internet and almost made the newspapers. Fortunately, editors still live there so it stayed an internet folly.

 

[TE999]

I bet this pisses the lawyers off...they want 12 Epsilon Semi-Morons in the jury box so they can weave a web of weasel words and they influence them...not have them know the facts of the case from another source.