Monday, February 21, 2011

When lawyers trawl Facebook and Google for the perfect juror...

When picking a jury, lawyers always try to stack the panel with people likely to take their side. Now, some are taking the vetting process to a new level: they're quietly trawling social networks and other sites to ferret out the most intimate details of potential jurors' lives, from their sexual orientation to their income level and politics.

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"Jurors are like icebergs -- only 10 percent of them is what you see in court," said Dallas-based jury consultant Jason Bloom. "But you go online and sometimes you can see the rest of the juror iceberg that's below the water line."

In Columbia, Missouri, criminal-defense attorney Jennifer Bukowsky builds Excel spreadsheets about prospective jurors using Facebook, MySpace, Google Inc and a state database of civil and criminal actions called Case.net. During a trial in Circuit Court for Boone County, Missouri, late last year in which her client, a black male, was charged with sexual assault, Bukowsky hoped to keep a white female juror on the panel because the woman's Facebook page included several pictures of her with a black man -- which Bukowsky took as a sign the woman was not racist.  Full story...

Don't miss:
  1. School principals trawl web to 'dig up the dirt on teachers'
  2. Privacy? What privacy? Teacher loses job because of Facebook photo...
  3. Don't let Facebook get you into trouble...
  4. Why your boss is tracking your Facebook account...
  5. Sex trial halted after juror says he was aroused and had to wear a condom!!! 

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