Cell Phone Savvy Jurors Setting the Legal System On Its Ear

James Kendrick:

We are hearing almost daily about another trial verdict being challenged because jurors are violating instructions given by judges and are posting trial information online in the jury room. They are using cell phones to post information to Facebook and on Twitter that they are not supposed to do. This is bad enough but an article in the New York Times today demonstrates that it’s even worse than that.

The NYT reports that it is becoming more common for jurors to use their cell phones to conduct research online about the trial they are deliberating. This directly exposes them to prejudicial or invalid information that could easily compromise their ability to render a fair verdict based solely on evidence presented at trial. One example the NYT produced is particularly shocking: Nine jurors on a trial in Florida admitted to the judge they had been conducting research affecting their deliberation in the jury room. The judge had no choice but to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of trial time.

There is not a question that factors not involving cell phones can jeopardize a juror’s ability to be fair. I experienced that myself in a recent stint as a juror on a trial. Incidents like the one I experienced are unavoidable but this misuse of cell phones by jurors seems to be spreading rapidly due to jurors becoming more tech-savvy about using phones to get online. It’s almost looking like it’s time for cell phones to be confiscated from jurors at the start of a trial. I’m not sure that sounds right, so this may be a tough problem to solve.