Social Networking and Cyber Research Undermining the Jury System

• Author: Karen Eltis
• Profession: University of Ottawa Columbia Law School
• Pages: 108-118

108

CHAPTER 7:

SOCIAL NETWORKING

AND CYBER RESEARCH

UNDERMINING THE JURY

SYSTEM

A. INTRODUCTION

“[I]f the jury system is to surv ive as the system for a fair trial . . . the misuse

of the Internet by jurors must stop” recently cautioned the Lord Chief Jus-

tice, Lord Judge, the most senior judge in England and Wales.1 is given

the daunting task of stopping jurors from tweeting or placing posts on

sites such as Facebook, as did one juror in Manchester, who — in a ag rant

breach of court rules and common sense — posted the details of a rape

trial on her account (via her mobile phone). She proceeded to sur vey her

friends on the site, asking: “Did he do it?”2

Presumably rebuking the lax ity characterizing most jurors’ — and

indeed many courts’ — lenient attitude towards social networking and

other related “mishaps,” o dismissed as an inevitable trend derivative of

progress, the same judge refreshingly added:

We cannot accept that the use of the i nternet, or rather its misuse,

should be acknowledged and treated a s an ineradicable fact of li fe, or

that a Nelsonian blind eye shou ld be turned to it or the possibility that it

1 “Jurors ‘Should Be Prosecuted for Tweeting from Courts and Goo gling Defend-

ents’, Warns Top Judge” The Daily Mail (20 November 2010) [“Jurors Sh ould Be

Prosecuted”], online: ww w.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331163/Twitter-Google-

jurors-prosecuted-warns-judge.html .

2 Guy Patrick, “Juror’s ‘is he guilty?’ posts on Facebook” The Sun (26 August 2010),

online: www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3111826/Woman-juror-dis-

cussed-trial-on-Facebook.html.