Jurors’ use of social media and other internet activity during criminal trials is the focus of research underway at the Tasmania Law Reform Institute (TLRI).
There has been limited research in this area in Australia and overseas, and the prevalence of juror misconduct of this kind remains largely unknown.
The TLRI released an Issues Paper on this subject today. The author, Research Fellow Jemma Holt, said indications are that juror misconduct of this kind is under-reported, at least to some extent, and that the reported cases represent the bare minimum of this misconduct.
“The detection of juror misconduct of this kind may be rare, but this does not necessarily mean that such misconduct is, in fact, rare,” she said.
Ms Holt said the research is a starting point in understanding the use of social media and other online activity during jury trials. Juror misconduct via social media and the internet may be either intentional or unintentional, or, indeed, somewhere in between.
