Tag: Jury instructions
Death Penalty Overturned Because of Sleeping, Tweeting Jurors
Contrary to our prediction, the Arkansas Supreme Court has vacated the conviction and sentencing of capital-murder defendant Erickson Dimas-Martinez and remanded the case for a new trial on grounds of juror misconduct. Although the decision is a definite victory for defendants, it may well invite a flood of appeals based on allegations of misconduct, regardless… Read More
New California Law Takes Aim at Jurors’ Uses of Internet
We have written about the impacts of ubiquitous Internet access and social-media networking on the jury system. Last February, we considered a Reuters Legal study that identified an exponential increase in the number of jury verdicts that have been challenged due to Internet-related juror misconduct. We also commented on a U.K. juror’s eight-month sentence for chatting… Read More
Will the Internet Taint a Loughner Verdict?
As Arizona plans a trial for accused Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, a new set of questions has arisen: How will a jury be able to sit in impartial judgment, untainted by nonstop online coverage of the crime and its aftermath? What safeguards should a judge impose to keep the jury from following the case… Read More
Skilling Fallout Doesn’t Spring Ex-Gov From Prison
The Supreme Court’s June decision in United States v. Skilling doesn’t give former Illinois Gov. George Ryan a “get out of jail free” card, a U.S. district judge has ruled. Ryan was convicted in 2006 of a series of fraud, racketeering, and similar crimes growing out of his abuse of public office while he was… Read More
Blagojevich and the Complexity of Jury Instructions
In the wake of the conviction in federal court in Chicago of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on one criminal count of lying to the FBI and the mistrial on 23 others, mostly involving political corruption, the question of the complexity of many white-collar crime cases has been widely discussed. In one newspaper account, a… Read More
IFRAH Law
