Twitter on Trial
” . . . technology is moving so fast that it’s difficult for the legal world to keep up.”
That statement, spoken to ABC News by Greg Brown, attorney for plaintiffs in a multimillion dollar investment scam trial, is getting harder to dispute in the light of two unrelated cases in the news this week. Both cases are high profile, and both involve jurors tweeting and wall-posting while serving duty. Attorneys for the defendants in each case have filed appeals after juries found both defendants guilty of fraud (among other things), and in one case a hefty settlement was awarded.
In the case of Russell Wright and his company, Stoam Holdings, the jury awarded investors Mark Deihl and William Nystrom 12.6 million dollars even after lawyers for the defendant alleged a juror’s tweets showed bias against his client. He has filed a motion for a new trial.
“I just gave away TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS of somebody else’s money.”
And another:
According to the motion, one posting listed the company’s Web address and read in part: “oh and nobody buy Stoam. Its bad mojo and they’ll probably cease to Exist, now that their wallet is 12m lighter.”
In the case of former Pennsylvania state senator Vincent Fumo who was charged with using state-employed staff to work on his homes, farm and political campaigns, lawyers filed an emergency motion last weekend asking that at least one juror be removed because he was posting messages to both Facebook and Twitter, but on Monday Fumo was found guilty on 137 counts.
In the Fumo case, attorneys argue that the juror “discussed the case” by posting those messages:
“Stay tuned for a big announcement on Monday everyone!”
He then sent out a Twitter message, or “tweet,” that said, “This is it … no looking back now!”
He also posted other comments, such as “Day 1 has come to a close.”
I certainly hope new technology isn’t creating another way for criminals to avoid convictions. Though the jurors claim they never read anything from the outside but only posted, can we ever really be sure? But its interesting to see how these tools are being used by regular people ( the Stoam juror was a Wal-Mart photo dept manager) who are being heard by millions of other regular people.
I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else.
Could all the noise over this be that people are taking power back from the sources that have frustrated them for so long, and the tyrants who have inflicted the domination don’t like it very much? The news is full of irate physicians, lawyers, and municipalities threatening to sue over sites like RateMDs.com, RateMyCop, and Avvo.com, because of user comments. And boy are they mad! Even trying lame tactics like copyright infringement as a basis.
So maybe technology is turning out to be the great leveler we all hoped it would be. Like-minded people are finding information and support in weird ways we never would have imagined, and someone is finally listening to the voice of the little guy. It’s only too bad the little guy needs a $300 phone to be heard.
