Tag Archives: Twitter Inc.

Out of the Darlene Green trial comes tweeting juror

On Friday, jurors weighing the case of Darlene Marie Green returned with a verdict of guilt on the charge of manslaughter. We had a story, in case you missed it, chronicling the jury’s decision.

As a reporter, I always like to discuss the trial with the jurors who handled it. But in this case, they were out the door before I left the courtroom. (Note: if any would want to discuss their feelings on the case, I’m all ears. Just drop a note to jfarley@kitsapsun.com.)

There was one juror in the case, though, that took to his Twitter account following the verdict. In fact, @adamoffburwell replied to my tweet of “The jury has reached a verdict in the case of Darlene Green,” with “yes we did,” and said he was juror No. 7.

@Adamoffburwell posted several tweets about his experience serving on the jury, including: “I felt the jury did its job in the darlene green case and didnt take the easy road.” I’ll let you see the rest for yourself.

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Lawyers increasingly checking social media sites to assess jurors

Surprise, surprise: The wealth of information many of us post about our lives on social media sites is being eyed by lawyers.

Last fall during jury selection in a murder case in Kitsap County Superior Court, prosecutors asked the potential triers-of-fact if they regularly “blogged” at newspaper web sites. The motivation by the state’s lawyers was to analyze their points of view to see if they could be impartial jurors.

Fast forward to this year in Maryland, where prosecutors argued successfully to redact juror candidates’ names prior to trial, to keep defense attorneys from Googling them before trial, according to a story in the Baltimore Sun. The judge signed off on the request.

It goes without saying that the more we participate in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the more of our lives become transparent.  They create records of our interactions, our ideas and our beliefs.

Police regularly Google suspects’ names during law enforcement investigations. So do we in the media world for the stories we write. I’d guess most people have conducted an Internet search or two (or many) to learn more about others.

So it is without surprise that our nation’s legal minds are also mining the Internet. Any information that could give them an edge — from finding evidence on Facebook that supports their case  to rooting out a juror that shows his bias commenting on news stories — is fair game.

Will there be courtroom rules to officiate such searching? So far, our judicial system, which moves far slower than technology, hasn’t caught up.

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