EKB News

WEST VIRGINIA....
West Virginia has joined several other states and the federal court system in recognizing that it would be a good idea to warn jurors in criminal and civil trials not to discuss the case on Internet social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. To avoid outside influences that could taint trials' outcomes, juries have long been instructed not to read newspaper stories, watch television reports about their cases or chat with family members or friends about a case, until after the trial is over. Advances in technology have now prompted an expansion of that instruction in courts nationwide. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals suggested such a revision when it ruled that Christopher Shane Dellinger's right to a fair trial was violated when a juror failed to disclose that she was his "friend" on MySpace. Dellinger, a Braxton County sheriff's deputy who had been convicted of fraud and falsifying accounts, received a new trial.