The trouble with Twitter during trials

DENVER - When jurors were first seated in a capital murder trial in an Arapahoe County courtroom two months ago, the judge warned them of the dangers of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Keeping a jury away from the hazards of the outside world has never been as difficult as it is today says 9NEWS Legal Analyst Scott Robinson.

"We want jurors to be restricted to what they hear or see in the courtroom," he said.

While judges have routinely asked jurors to stay away from newspaper and television accounts of the cases they are considering, warning jurors of the problems with social networking outlets is clearly a relatively new phenomenon.

It's not just information coming into the minds of jurors that has judges worried these days.

Earlier this year, a juror in Arkansas used Twitter to tell his followers that he had just helped award $12 million in a civil case. The defendant wasn't too pleased and asked for a mistrial.

In Pennsylvania, defense lawyers asked for a mistrial during a federal corruption trial when they learned that a juror had been posting updates on his Facebook page.

"Judges are now attuned to the wide variety of ways that jurors can communicate and obtain information about a case," Robinson said.

Media outlets in Colorado have routinely blogged from big trials ever since the federal insider trading trial of the former CEO of Qwest back in 2007. Joe Nacchio was found guilty, and the moment the verdict was read in open court journalists instantaneously sent information on the decision back to their newsrooms.

"The Nacchio case was really the first big case in Colorado where blogging was paramount," explained Robinson.

Since then it has become quite commonplace during such court hearings as the Ward Churchill civil trial in Denver and the Alex Mideyette child abuse case out of Boulder.

Last month, a Denver judge decided to ban text messaging, blogging and tweeting from inside her courtroom for the upcoming Willie Clark murder trial. Clark is accused of murdering Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams.

The State Court Administrator's Office is looking into recommending more uniformity in how judges across the state consider similar measures. Ultimately, each individual judge has a lot of latitude in what he or she does or does not want to allow in the courtroom.