Social Media Impacts Casey Anthony Murder Trial

Lawyers cited Facebook and Twitter as grounds to strike prospective jurors in the Casey Anthony murder trial, reports the Palm Beach Post. Lawyers instantly compared prospective juror’s answers during  jury selection with information posted on the jurors online social media websites. 

Prosecutors used a preemptory challenge to prevent the seating of one individual who they said had tweeted after a fender-bender, “Cops in Florida are idiots and completely useless.”  Based on this tweet, prosecutors could opine that the juror would carry a bias against the testimony or trustiworthiness of police officers.

Lawyers excused another juror “for cause”  after he reportedly posted the jury instructions on his Facebook page and joked online that there was a “book coming soon. lol.” 

Anthony is charged with killing her two-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008 and for providing false information to law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and told police that a babysitter kidnapped her daughter.  Jury selection had been moved out of Orlando in the hope of seating an unbiased jury.