Jurors who don't obey a judge's admonition to refrain from researching the Internet about a case or using social media during trial could be dinged up to $1,500 under proposed California legislation.
The first-of-its-kind measure, now before the California Assembly, would give a new weapon to judges in the Golden State who can already hold misbehaving jurors in contempt. But under the new law, designed to combat mistrials, a judge would have an easier time issuing a rank-and-file citation under the proposed law instead of having to go through all of the legal fuss to charge somebody with contempt.
Judges routinely warn jurors not to research their case or discuss it on social media. Normally, errant jurors are dismissed without any penalty, and sometimes a mistrial ensues. Under the new law, levying a fine would be as easy as issuing a traffic ticket.
"We are all on our cellphones and iPads all the time," the bill's sponsor, state Assemblyman Rich Gordon, said. "The problem with that is that it can lead to a mistrial. We’ve seen that happen across the country where verdicts have been tossed out, trials have had to be redone."
Wayward jurors have disrupted countless cases across the country. The Press Law and Democracy Project at Louisiana State University used to keep track of those cases, but there were too many and it was "more trouble than it was worth," Eric Robinson, the project's co-director, told The Associated Press.
Examples range from the extreme to the mundane and include a juror's tweets resulting in the tossing of an Arkansas death row inmate's murder conviction and an investment firm officer's conviction being set aside because of juror Internet research.
The proposal is before the state Assembly and, if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, would pave the way for a five-year pilot program.
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