The Googlization of Everything

baltimoresun.com:

baltimoresun.com When jurors Google Easy access to news, criminal records and legal jargon raises questions about courtroom integrity

By Julie Bykowicz

Sun reporter

July 27, 2008

Some of the grand jurors investigating allegations of misconduct by Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon have grown tired of the probe and its near-daily media coverage, one grand juror told a Sun reporter last month.

The exchange provoked a cringe: grand jurors - or any jurors - are not supposed to expose themselves to news accounts of the cases they are assigned.

And it raises a question that goes to the heart of the integrity of the criminal justice system: are jurors routinely violating their oath not to research cases - at home on their computers, in the jury deliberation room on the iPhones, by glancing at news reports - on their own?

At the start of any civil or criminal jury trial, the judge reads a set of instructions. Among the admonitions: "Do not research or investigate the case on your own. You must base your decision only on the evidence presented in this courtroom."

Local judges and attorneys believe that the system works well and that most jurors do follow the rules.

Richard Gabriel, a trial consultant for 23 years, isn't so sure.

Americans are used to having information at their fingertips, he says, and it can be difficult to set aside the desire to know everything when one takes the oath of a juror.

"It's mainly pure faith that keeps the system going," he says.

Although Gabriel said his research has shown that "a huge majority" of jurors follow the instructions of the court and refrain from doing their own research, "I don't doubt a small percentage of jurors who, given a consuming desire to do the right thing in deciding a case, do a little bit of research on their own."

The theory behind forbidding research outside the courtroom is to ensure that jurors receive only information that has been carefully vetted by attorneys on both sides and passes judicial muster for fairness and accuracy.

Of particular importance is the bedrock principle of deciding guilt or innocence in a particular case without making a judgment on the defendant's past conduct. In May, the Palm Beach Post reported that a man convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of his neighbor might get a new trial because of allegations of jury misconduct.

Among other issues, one juror supposedly used his iPhone to research the meaning of the word "prudence" during deliberations. ...