Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Google Mistrial

The NY Times has an article about the mistrial in Judge Zloch's courtroom last week after jurors did internet research:

Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock.
Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.
“We were stunned,” said the defense lawyer, Peter Raben, who was told by the jury that he was on the verge of winning the case. “It’s the first time modern technology struck us in that fashion, and it hit us right over the head.”
It might be called a
Google mistrial. The use of BlackBerrys and iPhones by jurors gathering and sending out information about cases is wreaking havoc on trials around the country, upending deliberations and infuriating judges.

Anything judges can do to make sure jurors don't hop on the internet, or is this going to happen in every case?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohhhh... Susanna Nesmith has been canned from the Miami Herald. Yes our dear friend who always checked and re-checked before trashing anyone's name has been canned.

She would fit in well at the National Enquirer, Globe, Star or any of the tabloid trash papers. They are always looking for a skilled writer who is able to simply make crap up as she goes.

Or write her with opportunities available in your area:

susannahnesmith@yahoo.com

Do not send job leads that require her to do any fact checking before going to print, as she will not accept those offers.

Susanna now joins her close unemployed fan base of Juan D'Arce, Ivan Hernandez and so many more...

We all wish you well. Ps. How is that mortgage getting paid?

Anonymous said...

about time she got canned.

Anonymous said...

So what ever happened on Monday with Judge Gold and the AUSA's
regarding their conduct in trial?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

David
You gotta blog about your cross examination od Cronin and Gilbert.

South Florida Lawyers said...

This is going to happen in every case. At least these jurors appeared interested in the outcome.