Juror Tweets Could Create Mistrial

nandemoari writes "Russell Wright and his construction company, Stoam Holdings, recently lost a $12 million dollar lawsuit brought by investors. But lawyers for the firm have complained that juror Johnathan Powell's Twitter comments broke rules when discussing the civil case with the public. The arguments in this dispute center on two points. Powell insists (and the evidence appears to back him up) that he did not make any pertinent updates until after the verdict was given; if that's the case, the objection would presumably be thrown out. If Powell did post updates during the trial, the judge must decide whether he was actively discussing the case. Powell says he only posted messages and did not read any replies. Intriguingly, the lawyers for Stoam Holding are not arguing so much that other people directly influenced Powell's judgment, rather that he might have felt a need to agree to a spectacular verdict to impress the people reading his posts."

Comments

Is that a Canary?

[geekmux]

Tweets? Canary? Sing like a Jailbird?

C'mon, the irony was practically slapping you in the face Stooge style...

Re:Is that a Canary?

[jgtg32a]

Yeah, about 2/3 of the reason why they were angry is because the fan was broken and it was hot in there.

Re:Tweet?

[Roane]

I prefer using the preexisting terminology for Twitter users, "twit".

Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Powell says he only posted messages and did not read any replies.

Sounds like your average day on slashdot.

Re:Tweet?

[Ohio Calvinist]

I find the term annoying myself. I'd have a lot easier time taking the thing seriously if it had a name like SMS-over-IP. If I pitched it as a campaign avenue to my 60 year old boss, I'd get a response something like "If we're going to send our customers "tweets", we might as well go all out and send them fart blossoms or some other made up nonsense."

Re:Tweet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've made many websites, far more complex than that pile of trash. Feel free to look at the one in my sig. -- Free Canadian Online Dating [dreamsingles.ca]

You should've called it twatter.

Re:Guh.

[Anonymous Coward]

But today? I see and hear people on their phones in the restroom all the damn time.

See?

Umm, I'm not sure I should take etiquette lessons from you :)

You mean you've never gone to the men's room, only to find an upper level executive with one hand on the urinal, the other with the cellphone against his ear while he.... .... wait just a second here. There's only ONE type of person who would never SEE someone in a restroom while in use....

A WOMAN!!! OMG I FOUND A REAL FEMALE ON /.!!!!

But, ya, it's kind of gross.

Re:Tweet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer using the preexisting terminology for Twitter users, "twit".

I think you mean "silly twat".

Re:It's like notetaking?

[Odin's Raven]

I don't think this is analgous to taking notes in a journal, so much as taking notes on the 3rd floor mens' room stall door.

And let me tell ya, you definitely can't believe everything written on the 3rd floor mens' room stall door. (Oh, and Carl - if you still read /., I'm like so sorry about ...well... you know. I just kinda got the impression you were totally into it.)

Re:Tweet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I like acronyms. How about we call it Fast And Really Tiny? All you FARTers will love FARTing on each other!

Microblog posts will be called "toots." Larger posts will be known as "dumps." The website infrastructure will be described as a collection of Advanced Stratocumulus Servers, and this particular form of cloud computing will be referred to as occurring "in the ASS."

Re:Tweet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah, whatever. I'm off to register the next big thing: fart-blossoms.com...

- T

Re:It's like notetaking?

[PopeGumby]

I swear to god, if IANALBIHBAJ becomes a new internet slang, it will be the greatest day ever.