The Instant Messaging Era Arrives in Court
There have been several blog posts lately (see The One Simple Rule When Jurors Go Online; Twitter has a Voice in Federal Court; Twittering on the Brink of Mistrial)regarding several cases where jurors were “caught” sending messages on twitter and facebook. The texts included some references to what was going on in the trial, and what the person was doing at that time.
The consensus has been that these messages have not crossed any legal lines to excuse a juror or overturn the verdict on an appeal. But as for today, the appellate courts have not ruled on the issue.
It does bring up some interesting questions that will now have to be asked during jury selection of the prospective jurors - Do they have a twitter account? Do they have a facebook account? If they answer yes, does the court have jurisdiction or authority to access the accounts and see what is being posted on them during the trial? Can a court order a juror not to use these sites during the trial?
Some courts may have to limit the use of cell phones during a trial, especially during deliberations.
The next limit is going to be the use of laptop computers by jurors as courtrooms or public buildings are equipped with Wi-Fi access. To those of us who still struggle between the new technology and the “old” methods, these thoughts and questions at times overwhelm us. It may, if we are not careful overwhelm our system and we will lose focus on the true issues of what brought the case to court in the first place.
