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Jurors, Internet Research and Social Media
Starting three years ago, so-called “Google mistrials” ' soon supplemented by Facebook and Twitter mistrials ' became a hot media topic as accounts began to surface of trials torpedoed or threatened by jurors' use of the Internet to conduct improper trial-related research or to communicate about the trial's progress, the evidence, or the jury's deliberations. Initially publicized by a widely noted story in The New York Times in March 2009, this phenomenon has since been the subject of articles in practically every bar publication that includes litigators among its target audience.
The federal courts and more than 30 states subsequently adopted model jury instructions warning jurors against improper Internet use, and some have implemented policies restricting jurors' access to electronic communications devices during trials. A handful of jurors have been sanctioned for Internet-related misconduct, and courts have begun to issue decisions reflecting the collision between young, tech-savvy “digital natives” summoned to jury duty and the traditional rules governing juror research and communications. See, e.g., United States v. Fumo, 655 F.3d 288 (3rd Cir. 2011) (affirming the denial of a mistrial in a high-profile public corruption case where a juror made a succession of trial-related posts on his Facebook wall and also tweeted as the verdict approached); United States v. Juror Number One, ___ F. Supp.2d ___, 2011 WL 6412039 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 21, 2011) (dismissed juror was fined $1,000 for communicating her views about the appropriate outcome of the case to a still-sitting juror, who indicated she would “share your message with the gang”); Dimas-Martinez v. State, 2011 WL 6091330 (Ark. Dec. 8, 2011) (reversing a trial judge's decision denying a mistrial in a capital case where a juror sent tweets while the jury was deliberating).
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