Social media is coming into play in all aspects of life. Now, it’s helping in the selection of jurors for the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor. According to the CNN article: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/tech/social-media/social-media-jurors-murray/index.html Not only did the potential jurors answer a 100 question survey, they were quizzed about the information put on social media.
LA defense attorney Sherard Kopp said in the article, “if somebody has a Facebook page where their settings are public, and you can see what their interests are, you can very well learn valuable information there.” If a potential juror talked about their view of the Jackson doctor case, they may be biased. Jury consultant Richard Gabriel said social media has really helped screen jurors for high-profile murder cases.
We’ve always been told to watch what we say on social media, and stories like this make me take that to heart. Everything people say on social media can and will be found if someone wants to find it… It can be used against you for juror selection, at your job, and who knows what will be next.
Interesting--this is one application of social media I haven't heard of yet!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the potential jurors can take advantage of this; in getting out of being selected or in wanting to be selected. They could purposely post certain things they know could hurt or help their selection. I think this is a logical development not just for high profile cases, but for future cases in general. It will be interesting to see if more news comes from this.
ReplyDeleteThis is simply stunning to ponder over. I wonder how serious social networking will become because of topics just like this. I mean, what if you were to post something untrue on your account (for whatever reason) and were held accountable for it in a job/juror screening? They may have missed an important juror because of something silly like that. Of course, that just lends itself to the fact that everything you post today can and will come back against you if someone high up enough wants it to, so think twice? I will say that this is a nice way to try to ensure that you "think" you have collected the right people for a high level case such as this. It certainly couldn't hurt.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely one of the most odd uses of social media I have run across. It just proves that social media takes many shapes and can be used in endless ways. It is the new way of the world, might as well embrace it!
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