Social Media and the Jury Box

Interesting article in today's New York Times by John Schwartz about the use of social media amongst juries in recent trials around the country.

In trials in Arkansas and Pennsylvania jurors have been using Twitter and their Facebook status to communicate information about the jury verdicts such as:

Big Announcement Coming

oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter

So Johnathan, what did you do today? Oh nothing really, I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money

So far, judges haven't decided that these two chaps have broken any laws because they were only sending information out rather than bringing contraband information in.  However, others have used Google, Wikipedia, and the like to research information on the case that was not brought up in trial - which is, apparently, grounds for mistrial.

It will be interesting to watch as the court system adjusts to the information age.

Thanks to Alex and Deb for the tip via Twitter.