This blog has repeatedly discussed how the Digital Age has made it easier for jurors to conduct research about the case and discuss it with others. However, another concern, rarely addressed is the impact of the Digital Age on a juror's ability to stay focused on the trial and witness testimony. The article below discusses how one juror was dismissed from a sexual assualt case because he constantly kept checking his phone.
Omaha World Herald: Deliberating while distracted
The middle-aged juror, a grain trader by day, was faced with what he called an emergency at work: a train with an unpaid-for load of grain was on the fast track to Mexico.
If he didn't get his employees to stop it before the border, he later said, his company might be out $5.3 million, the value of the grain.
At the same time, the juror was supposed to be weighing every word of a witness in a case of huge importance: a first-degree sexual assault trial of a young man accused of brutalizing a young woman.
The juror had heard Douglas County District Judge James Gleason admonish jurors to give each witness their undivided attention. The judge even specifically instructed jurors to not check their phones or email during court.
But the juror's smartphone was lighting up — and he made a not-so-smart choice. He checked the phone throughout a nurse's testimony about the woman's extensive injuries.
A defense attorney, then a prosecutor, then a law clerk, then a court reporter, then a fellow juror saw him with his phone by his thigh and his head cocked in the familiar down-and-to-the-side phone mode.
With that, the juror earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first Douglas County juror to be kicked off a jury for what has become a national epidemic: Deliberating while distracted...to continue reading go here.
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