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Juror Tweets Could Create Mistrial

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the cell-jammers-being-installed-next-week dept.

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."

6 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. It's the Juror's Fault by rm999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He made tweets like:

    "So, Johnathan, what did you do today?' Oh, nothing really. I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else's money!"
    and
    "Oh, and nobody buy Stoam. It's bad mojo, and they'll probably cease to exist, now that their wallet is $12M lighter. http://www.stoam.com/."

    He was clearly show-boating for his tweeter fans, even if in jest. Therefore, I do think there is a chance that he "felt a need to agree to a spectacular verdict to impress the people reading his posts."

    While it is sucks that there may have to be a retrial, the important of impartial justice supersedes the inconvenience.

    1. Re:It's the Juror's Fault by SpottedKuh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While it is sucks that there may have to be a retrial, the important of impartial justice supersedes the inconvenience.

      If only I had mod points. The potential issue is that a juror may have been showboating (i.e., not being impartial). The fact that it was done using Twitter is irrelevant. It's really no different than if he went home and said these things to everyone in person...except that the lawyers probably wouldn't have known about it then.

    2. Re:It's the Juror's Fault by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are those really his posts? If so, then there's clearly grounds for a mistrial.

      Disclaimer: My legal training is from /. plus Law and Order.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
  2. Re:Tweet? by Roane · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  3. Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    Sounds like your average day on slashdot.

  4. Re:Tweet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.