MUJI 2d Will Try to Address the “Google” Mistrial

The ubiquitous smartphone strikes again: the New York Times reports that jury misconduct in the form of researching on the internet the case on trial in courtroom.  Is this the tip of the iceberg?  Perhaps before smartphones became as widespread independent jury research was limited to juries doing their research on their home computers after hours.  Now it seems every juror with a smartphone is googling the defendant over the lunch hour in even one-day trials:

A juror on a lunch or bathroom break can find out many details about a case.  Wikipedia can help explain the technology underlying a patent claim or medical condition, Google Maps can show how long it might take to drive from point A to point B, and news sites can write about a criminal defendant, his lawyers or expert witnesses.

Utah is currently in the process of redrafting its Model Utah Jury Instructions and will apparently include a jury instruction to address the threatened “Google” mistrial.  It is reported that the proposed jury instruction will instruct jurors to not use the Internet while they are serving as jurors.  Presumably the instruction will be tailored to each case since many people use the Internet for much more than research or inappropriately twittering about their jury trial.  We shall see.

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