Appellate Law

Trial by Tweet

By Greg May

More accurately, I guess, trial coverage by tweet.  A reporter as been given permission by a federal judge in Kansas to pubish updates from the courtroom via Twitter.  A few of his dispatches by tweet:

? “Judge Marten is talking to reluctant witness in chambers with a court reporter transcribing the conversation.”

? “The witness who was yelling in the hallway earlier has not returned to the courthouse.”

? “Defendants are chatting and laughing among themselves.”

? “Exhibits are shown electronically. Every juror has a monitor in the box. There is a monitor at each lawyer’s table and one for the gallery.”

It won’t be long before journalism schools offer a course in “journalism in 140 characters or less.”

We’ve already seen a blogging juror become a potential issue on appeal.  But it seems unlikely we’ll see tweeting jurors any time soon.  It would be awfully hard to tweet from the jury box without being noticed.

Full post as published by The California Blog of Appeal on March 06, 2009 (boomark / email).