Is There a Problem with Jurors using Twitter and Facebook ?
The issue has disrupted two recent cases in Arkansas and Pennsylvania. Defense attorneys in Philadelphia said Monday they plan to appeal the conviction of former State Sen. Vincent Fumo because a juror discussed the case on Facebook and Twitter.
In the Pennsylvania case, juror Eric Wuest (weest) put a posting on Facebook late Friday saying, "Stay tuned for a big announcement on Monday everyone!" His posting foreshadowed a verdict finding Fumo and a former aide guilty on all charges.Defense lawyers tried to have Wuest removed, but the judge wouldn't do so. He said he found the juror credible when he said no one outside the jury had influenced him . The defense attorneys said the tweets broke the rules against disclosure of jury deliberation.
In Arkansas a building materials company appealed a $12.6 million verdict, saying a juror's Twitter messages sent before and after the trial showed that he was biased against the company. The lawyers say tweets like "I just gave away twelve million dollars of somebody else's money" a "Oh nobody by Stoam its bad mojo" illustrate the juror was predisposed to a verdict that would impress his audience.
A recent search on Twitter for the term "jury duty" found dozens of people posting comments about jury duty, though most were general complaints, not discussions of what was happening in the jury room.
Lawyers are paying more and more attention to social-media updates, so it's likely we've not heard the last of the silly Twitter-based legal maneuver. But it's not just the information-spreading that's got lawyers and judges worried, it's also juries looking up info on their phones during trials.
In a drug trial in Florida, a judge declared a mistrial after learning that 8 jurors had accessed online information on their mobile phones during a trial. A cornerstone of the US' adversarial legal system is that juries can only consider the evidence that's presented to them, and jurors looking information up on their own breaks the longstanding rules of evidence of the system. It's not as if the legal system is under threat from technology, but certainly expect to see plenty more stories along these lines in the near future .
At every trial the judge tells the jurors not to do their own independant investigation. As the case is supposed to be based on the evidence presented in the Courtroom. My sense is that jurors will be offended but the ultimate resolution is no cell phones in the courtroom. of course that does not prevent a juror from tweeting at home or searching the internet.
However as a trial attorney I find that 99.9 % of the jurors try to do the right thing and follow the Judges instructions.
By Anthony Castelli Cincinnati personal injury trial attorney http://www.castellilaw.com
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