Bloggers are the target of a series of voir dire questions in the state of Washington. According to The Crime Report and the Kitsap Sun, potential jurors in a Kitsap County, murder case were asked last week, “Have you ever written a letter-to-the-editor or ‘blog’ about any story you may have read or heard about relating to violent crime?” Prosecutor Kevin Hull said the “blogging” question could help reveal whether potential jurors have pre-formed opinions about the case, the defendant, or violent crime in general, reports the Kitsap Sun. (None of 200 who received the jurors’ questionnaire had answered yes on blogging as of Thursday.)
The new social media technology has emerged rapidly and the law has lumbered along in response to it, said Eric Robinson of the Reynolds Center for the Courts and Media in Reno, Nevada. Social media won’t inherently have a positive or negative impact on the court’s ability to administer a fair trial, Robinson said. He likens the changes to those that took place in courthouses when the telephone was invented — judges adjusted to having more information fanning out from their courtrooms more quickly and with greater opining. “I don’t think it’s necessarily good or bad for the courts,” he said. “They just have to deal with it.”
Link: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/oct/30/lawyers-in-sk-murder-trial-asking-would-be-if-on/
The G E Mound Case
2 months ago
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1 comment:
I have to agree. I don't think blogging will have an impact on the court's ability to admit a fair trail. Most individuals are smart enough not to post sensitive material on their blogs. Along with that, how likely would someone be to admit if they had or not. No matter what the disposition is, people are still going to be bias in someway whether they blog it or not.
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