Article Focuses on Juror Research During Trials
A Sunday Sun-Herald article focused on the problem of jurors conducting their own research during trials. Here is a link to the article posted on another site. The Sun-Herald had removed the article from its site late Sunday.
The article quotes State and Federal judges on the Coast:
"Jurors have no business being on any device inquiring into any aspect of the trial, period -- about the parties, about the attorneys, anything," Circuit Court Judge Robert Krebs said. "They're the fact-finders and the facts they have to rely on are what's presented in the courtroom.
"I rule on various legal issues. But the parties on both sides (defense and prosecution) put on the facts they want the jurors to hear," Krebs said.
"It has worked for a long time." U.S. District Court Judge Louis Guirola said personal technology in the courtroom is an issue that has exploded.
"Everyone has a BlackBerry," Guirola said. "So in the jury room with jurors deliberating, one juror might say, 'I don't know what this word means. Let's look it up on my phone, iDictionary.' That would be improper," Guirola said.
"If the term is not defined in the courtroom, it's just as improper for them to look it up on an iPhone as it would be to ask the bailiff to bring in a dictionary," he said.
Back in December I speculated in this post that courts would have to instruct jurors on the use of social networking sites during trials. It’s happening. Federal judges on the Coast are giving a jury instruction that addresses these issues:
So in light of all the communication technology, judges on the Coast are getting very specific with jury instructions: "You may not communicate with anyone about the case on your cell phone, through e-mail, BlackBerry, iPhone, text messaging or on Twitter, through any blog or Web site, through any Internet chat room, or by way of any other social-networking Web sites, including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and YouTube." Those words are part of a model given to federal judges to make sure the message gets across.
This is an issue that will only get bigger. Anyone who has ever conducted a focus group knows that jurors want the answers to questions that for whatever reason, were not addressed during the trial.
And jurors don't necessarily think that lawyers and judges are as smart and reliable for information as we would like to believe we are. Jurors crave information to help them make decisions. Given time, jurors will search for answers to their questions themselves.
Sometimes their questions may focus on issues that are not relevant and that they should not consider. Other times the questions may be on potentially relevant facts that no one thought to address during the trial.
Either way, it's not good for the judicial system when jurors are gathering information instead of deciding the case based on the information provided during the trial.
Telling jurors not to do it will help. But it is naive to think that it will alleviate the problem. No one is going to know what a juror looks up at night on the Internet during a trial.
