El Chapo wants a new trial, asks court to investigate alleged juror misconduct
“It is a very serious problem and I think this judge really sits on the precipice with a lot of folks in the judiciary potentially following what’s going to happen here,” said Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury consultant for the defense team in the O.J. Simpson trial. “This is really going to set a precedent, and the judge knows this.”
Juries are supposed to reach a verdict based solely on evidence and testimony heard inside the courtroom, but Facebook, Twitter, and Google have made it easy for curious jurors to seek out forbidden information about their case. Exactly how often that happens remains unclear, largely because jury deliberations are held in secret. Misconduct is typically only reported when jurors come forward or post publicly on social media.
Dimitrius said her firm’s polling has shown that 40 percent of prospective jurors say they would violate a judge’s instructions about social media. Other publicly available research suggests internet-related juror misconduct is rare. Only 33 federal judges out of nearly 500 surveyed in 2014 reported catching social media use by jurors during trial or deliberations. Another survey, also from 2014, of nearly 600 jurors from state and federal courts found that just 8 percent admitted being “tempted to communicate” about their case on social media.
Securing Your Next Client—Digital Footprint, Digital Dossier, Digital Tracks
The nuances of attracting and securing a new client as a lawyer haven’t received much written commentary. With the economic crisis still affecting our business interactions it is becoming much more difficult to attract and secure corporate clients. How does a lawyer deal with increasing pressure to deliver the corporate client? Here’s a thought that may not be particularly groundbreaking but certainly timely in our technological society: digital footprints.
What are digital footprints? They are the tracks, data and information left by any corporation on the internet through either their own manipulation (postings, blogs, etc.) or through the manipulation of others.
In your due diligence of a potential corporate client, how often do you “Google” the corporation and its key management? How often do you go beyond the articles written about the entity and read the actual comments posted to the particular article? Further, how often do you consider the source and readership of the article? If Huffington Post writes the article then you’re generally apt to find more liberal readers reacting to the article and can make some assumptions about potential juror bias based on that fact. If Fox News posts the article then chances are your responders will be more conservative.
It’s really shocking to know how many companies still operate in the dark ages when it comes to self-assessment of their digital footprint and the manner in which it impacts public perception. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to hypothesize that the more you research the digital tracks of a corporation the better prepared you will be to highlight their strengths and weaknesses when you’re in that “Beauty Contest” in front of the client. This synthesized knowledge will aide in the presentation and persuasion process as it relates to potential litigation.
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