A high profile trial starts today that will be all over the news. I won't even mention the name so no one "Googling" it would come to this blog. I have raised these concerns in prior posts:
1. Jurors will seek definitions of legal terms, background on the defendant and victim and the lawyers on the Web
2. Defendant's supporters previously set up a website to collect donations for attorney's fees. Not sure if its still up.
3. Some jurors would see the opportunity to make themselves the story, appear on the Today show, or make a book deal.
4. Jurors will look for stories about the trial on the Internet and read comments from the public.
5. Jurors will read articles on the Internet about pretrial motions on evidence and other issues.
6. Jurors may be the target of members of the public: social pressure, coercion, intimidation, maybe even threats.
7. Jurors may consider discussing the case on their Facebook page, unable to handle their perceived celebrity
It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.
UPDATE: Was it inevitable? Dismissed prospective juror attempts to watch trial, is escorted away. Google it. I prefer not to state anything more.\
Sequestered jury can concentrate on its duty without distraction of social media:
http://technorati.com/social-media/article/social-media-why-the-george-zimmerman/
No comments:
Post a Comment