Have you seen this happening yet? According to the New York Times, jurors are using their IPhones and Blackberries to do online research about the cases that they are hearing, which I guess does mean that they're not falling asleep in their chairs (good thing) but may well mean more and more mistrials.
A Florida case just lost 8 weeks worth of trial time when the federal judge declared one of the nation's first Google mistrials because of a juror's IPhone efforts.
I mean, this is a much bigger deal than yesteryear's warning not to watch TV or read the newspaper. Apparently, jurors are investigating and researching details of the case. Double-checking what the experts are telling them, learning a bit more about the evidence as it's being admitted.
One has to wonder about the impact of shows like CSI on this sort of thing. You like your jury to be involved in the case, but this is scary, right?
Next thing you know, they'll start wanting to ask questions, do their own examinations ...LOL... and I don't know about you, but I bet there's a good many jurors out there who could do a pretty fine job of that task, given the opportunity.
For the full NYT article, go here.
To read the Las Vegas Sun's discussion of "ijuries," go here.
For the Financial Times discussion of "Google Mistrials" go here.