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Lawyer Demands Jury Stops Googling

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the justice-has-no-wifi dept.

coomaria noted an unsurprising story about how courts are having problems with jurors Googling during cases. As anyone who has ever been called for jury duty knows, you aren't allowed to get outside information about the case you are hearing, but apparently the iPhone makes it far too easy to ignore this advice. A lawyer is trying to get jurors to sign a form explicitly stating they won't "use 'personal electronic and media devices' to research or communicate about the case." Of course, I'm not exactly sure why a juror should need to sign something for your iPhone but not a newspaper.

3 of 517 comments (clear)

  1. Heaven forbid... by Auroch · · Score: 1, Troll

    Yes, we must stop people from informing themselves with the relevant issues. If they were to make informed decisions about court cases, how will the RIAA make money off file sharers?

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  2. Re:Newspaper by Kell+Bengal · · Score: 0, Troll

    Only TVs in the US. I'm very pleased to say that the US is not yet the world.

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  3. Re:Oh puhlease... by rohan972 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Deciding what is and isn't admissible is the judge's job.

    I have no trouble with the Judge instructing a jury why a particular piece of evidence is inadmissible and not to consider it. I think it's going to far to prevent them from hearing it though. Particularly for the defendant. I see a case for making sure police can't get around the fourth amendment, but preventing the defendant to say anything true they feel is relevant to their defence IMO violates the first amendment.

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