Death Row Inmate Gets New Trial Because Of Twitter Gaffe

A jury of his peers found Erickson Dimas-Martinez guilty of the murder of a 17-year-old boy after a 2010 robbery and sentenced him to death row and now the convicted murderer will receive a new trial because of a Twitter addicted juror.

It took just 140 characters for an associate justice on Thursday to write:

“Prejudice results from the fact that the juror admitted to the misconduct, which proves that he failed to follow the court’s instructions, and it is the failure to follow the law that prejudiced Appellant.”

Among the tweets send by juror Randy Franco:

“Choices to be made. Hearts to be broken. We each define the great line.”

He also tweeted:

“its [sic] over”

When questioned by the judge Franco acknowledged tweeting but then continued to tweet about the case regardless of the judges warning, a fact that the court called even “more troubling” than his first offenses.

Attorneys for Dimas-Martinez say the tweeting incident wasn’t the only issue during the trial, they say one juror slept through part of the court proceedings.

Do you believe that the messages send by Mr. Franco were damaging enough to the case that they should result in an entirely new trial for the convicted murderer?