Circuit Court

     If you follow the Circuit Court on Newsgram you know that jury duty is a bit of a hot topic these days.  A growing number of courthouses around the country are running into problems with jurors discussing cases on the Internet. 

     The National Center for Jury Studies has become concerned enough that it is launching a comprehensive examination into jurors who use Twitter, Facebook and other social media while serving on jury duty.  Researchers are trying to determine how often jurors admit to posting comments online or trying to get information about a case online. In the past two years, at least 90 court opinions have been published addressing allegations of juror misconduct, of which 28 of the verdicts were ultimately overturned. 

     The data collected will try to determine what characteristics make it more likely that jurors will start going online during the trial.  For example, do jurors in criminal trials tend to tweet more often than jurors in civil trials?  Are there certain personality traits that make a juror more likely to disobey a judge's instructions and go online?

    This is the most comprehensive study to ever look at the Internet and jury misconduct.  Many of us anxiously await the findings.