In the Information Age, are Juries Ever Truly Unbiased?

Lawyer addressing jury
Can juries really be unbiased in the Information Age?
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In the age of instant social media commentary, is it possible for juries to be completely unbiased?  Particularly for high-profile cases, such as allegations against Bill Cosby or the Grand Jury on Eric Garner, the issue is an important one.

It’s easy to make snap judgments about particularly scandalous cases.  For Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, for example, social response has already begun even without an official case.  Dershowitz, who was allegedly involved in a sex scandal with an underage woman, has not officially been sued; the case has only been filed in the Florida federal court, along with Dershowitz’s rebuttal.  However, since the woman in question has also claimed to have been involved with Prince Andrew, all eyes and ears—and media outlets—are tuned into the proceedings.

“So many times we talk about the presumption of innocence in a court of law,” said Kendall Coffey, Dershowitz’s defending lawyer.  “Maybe there should be more of a presumption of innocence in the court of public opinion.”

Whether or not Dershowitz and others are taken to trial and found guilty or innocent, the question remains:  Can they really be tried by an unbiased jury of their peers, as the law requires?  Celebrity reputations don’t tend to do well when caught up in the 24-hour news cycle or the plethora of blogs, websites, and YouTube videos.  And sometimes, the jurors themselves are unable to hold the line between the case and public opinion, as when juror Kasim Davey was jailed for being in contempt of court after posting a derogatory comment about the case for which he was juror.

Of course, access to outside information isn’t anything new.  Newspapers have always been full of stories about the biggest cases, and it’s not impossible to get a message to a defendant.  The advent of the internet has just made the whole process of getting and passing on information a lot easier.

Studies on the influence of media on juries have come up with some disturbing results.  Ogloff and Vidmar found that “exposure to the various media had a prejudicial impact on people, as they were unaware of their biases.”  And a Stanford study found that when a case receives a lot of media coverage, elected judges tend to sentence more harshly.

Simply disallowing press coverage isn’t feasible—or desirable, since the public has the right to know the truth.  In some cases, it’s possible to maintain a certain lack of bias in jurors by moving the trial to a different location, but change of venue motions aren’t usually granted, due to higher costs.

Maybe it’s just unreasonable to assume that a jury can be unbiased when it comes to high profile cases.  Increased media coverage means increased pressure on the prosecutors trying celebrities, for instance, and the effect of the media on those involved in a case can be devastating even before the case begins, never mind when the verdict is reached.  In the case of the allegations against Bill Cosby, for example, the effects are already being seen—despite his refusal to comment, Cosby has had to cancel multiple TV and live performances.

Is a public figure’s reputation a reasonable amount of collateral damage when it comes to court cases?  Perhaps if they’re guilty—but what if they’re not?  And by the time that’s determined, the damage has already been done.

There is no easy answer.  But as technology and access to it improves, the supposed unbiased nature of the jury of one’s peers will definitely need to be reconsidered.

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