As jurors go online, US trials go off track

The explosion of blogging, tweeting and other online diversions has reached into US jury boxes, raising serious questions about juror impartiality and the ability of judges to control courtrooms.

Jurors' forays on the Internet have resulted in dozens of mistrials, appeals and overturned verdicts in the last two years. For decades, courts have instructed jurors not to seek information about cases outside of evidence introduced at trial, and jurors are routinely warned not to communicate about a case with anyone before a verdict is reached. But jurors these days can, with a few clicks, look up definitions of legal terms on Wikipedia, view crime scenes via Google Earth, or update their blogs and Facebook pages with snide remarks about the proceedings.