Juror thrown off trial after setting up Facebook poll to help with decision
From the archive: published Nov 24, 2008, 17 years ago. Details may have changed since.
A female juror in the UK has been thrown off a trial after it was discovered she turned to Facebook for help on her decision.
The unnamed juror was on the jury in a case about child abduction and sexual assault at the Burnley Crown Court, UK. Apparently the trial was difficult, because she couldn’t make up her mind, so Web 2.0 came to the rescue.
According to Metro.co.uk, she wrote on her Facebook page “I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll.” Unfornuately though, someone with a better sense of the law dobbed her in, and shortly there after she was dismissed from the jury.
According to reports, she did not use privacy settings for her poll, meaning the poll on Facebook could have been read by anyone.
