Should Jurors be forbidden from the Internet?
Good morning, Netizens...
As our own Jeanie of Spokane has learned, subsequent to serving on a jury panel recently, there are a lot of rules placed on potential jurors in Spokane County. In the story, which appears on the Spokesman-Review website here http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/mar/29/jurors-may-be-barred-from-using-electronics/ judges in Idaho are carefully considering new guidelines for jurors which specifically will prohibit the use of the Internet while serving as jurors.
The emphasis is moving toward a set of jury rules which will restrict or flat-out deny jurors from using their Ipods or other electronic devices to research or make comments upon cases while they are serving on a jury. In other words, if information has not been given to the jury by members of the court they will not be able to perform independent research to discover new information nor to comment on cases before the court.
The first question that hits my mind is how accurate is the information you, as a potential juror, would find on the Internet? Most important to me, do you believe banning jurors from performing research should be enforced? If so, why?
Dave