Demon Technology

I must admit, it's not every day that one opens the local newspaper to find the latest in technology splashed across in banner type:

Twitter use prompts motion for new trial

It seems young Johnathan Powell could not disconnect himself from the outside world while serving as a juror for a local civil trial that led to a $12.6 million judgment. Gee, you reckon the defendant will move for mistrial once your Twitter trail is discovered?

E-discovery is the hot new item in jurisprudence, and Mr. Powell just got himself caught in its web.

I'll leave the news accounts for the details -- here are my takeaways. I'll try to keep them tweet length

Obviously the concept of traditional American jury duty is lost on Mr. Powell.

You look like a goober when you brag about someone else's ill-fate in which you participated.

Did you not understand digital messaging lives somewhere forever?

Or did you just think those squares on the bench were hick-rubes that wouldn't catch you Tweeting?

Legally, it appears this will be much ado about nothing with the Arkansas' standard for mistrial and the fact there is no current evidence that Mr. Powell received outside information -- either by using one of his "toys", his computer which he bragged about being smart enough to bring with him to the trial, or via Twitter. Wait, I'm sorry, that was more than 140 characters. Very well, continuing for those with longer attention spans, Mr. Powell seems quite lost in today's legacy tree version of the story that what he did was wrong.

"They are trying to make it look like I was talking about the trial the whole time I was there."

The concept is you aren't talking to outsiders when you are on a jury. No phone calls. No reading the newspaper. So guess what, McFly (oh, sorry, that's a dated reference to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, or at least Vic 20s), the judge means that. It doesn't matter if you made one or one hundred Tweets, you violated the rules. They call that Contempt of Court -- if you're vague on it, try Wikipedia. You gave a good lawyer an opening, and they will now exploit it to the fullest extent possible.

For all of Mr. Powell's sneering Gen-Y contempt -- "It totally caught me by surprise. I find it weird they are making a big deal about it. It's mainly because it's new and it's Twitter. It's technology, and it's easy to confuse people." -- there is plenty of well-reasoned opinion in this event. The judges get it, and that's why Mr. Powell's in dutch. New technology is a part of the court room, and guess what, Mr. Powell, your own ignorance of how it works -- that a friend of the defendant could Google the trial and find your Tweets.

Really, Mr. Powell. Did you think they just disappeared? They aren't SMS text messages. Are you confused? Let me guess, you also believe that Facebook security works and it really isn't that big a deal to pirate digital content, as long as its for your personal use and the use of your 50 or 60 friends that you've brought into your Justin.TV chat room.

At the end of the day, no one can say NWA is off the techno-legal map. We've already started to make the legal blogs, again. We can add this case to our folio of the iPhone boudoir photos at McDonalds and of course the recent unpleasantness surrounding Mitch Mustain.