Florida courts to silence "tweeting" jurors
From Ballotpedia
|
May 22, 2012
Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has added a new guideline for trial court judges in criminal cases. They now must warn jurors not to use electronic devices to talk about the case.
The official wording for the instructions (which judges are likely to modify when actually speaking to jurors) goes like this:
- "In this age of electronic communication, I want to stress that you must not use electronic devices or computers to talk about this case, including tweeting, texting, blogging, emailing, posting information on a website or chat room, or any other means at all. Do not send or accept any messages, including email and text messages, about your jury service.”[1]
According to a Reuters Legal survey in 2010, internet-related misconduct by jurors accounted for the challenge of at least 90 verdicts from 1999 to 2010. The new opinion is based on the work of the Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Criminal Cases.[2]
Footnotes
| |||||
