Social media posts often used to screen jurors

By Emma Witman ewitman@gainesvilletimes.com

POSTED: July 13, 2014 12:23 a.m.

Online social media profiles have become a seamless extension of our real-world personalities. But with broader access to sharing your life and personality via the Internet come implications, including with the criminal justice system.

“To the extent that prospective jurors choose to make information concerning themselves available to the public at large in social media, it would certainly be appropriate to use that information in the jury selection process,” District Attorney Lee Darragh said.

And this spring, the American Bar Association made it formally known it’s within ethical boundaries for lawyers to search a juror’s or potential juror’s public Internet presence, including posts made by the juror before or during a trial.

“I think it is useful,” said Brad Morris, chief public defender for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit.
After all, in everyday life people check on others as a passing whim, while dredging up information for jury selection serves a different purpose.

“It is the time during jury selection that the attorneys try to ascertain, through questions, if jurors have any preconceived biases or prejudgments,” said Gainesville attorney John Breakfield. “It is crucial for both sides that the jurors selected make a decision based on legally presented evidence in court, not outside influences.”
Voir dire, the process of evaluating potential jurors, is French for “to speak the truth,” he said. The practice is sensible for a truth-seeking process that has always beckoned lawyers to parse any other publicly available information.

“Facebook, Twitter and other social media are the public record of modern times, unless certain privacy settings are in place,” Breakfield said.

And depending on settings, certain facts might be unearthed that would otherwise never see the light: Political views, associations, perhaps even a clearly stated viewpoint on a case that has been concealed or overlooked.

Source: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/101996/

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