I’ve never had jury duty, but I hear that it’s unpleasant. Maybe that’s why the Cameron County district attorney’s pushing for Facebook profiles to be viewed as part of the jury selection process—to give us a way out.
At this point, the jury selection process doesn’t allow for access to too much information:
Currently, the prosecutors and defense attorneys only have the basic information about the potential juror that includes their name, children, religion and employer. Prosecutors also have smartphones where they can do quick queries on potential jurors by using the Google search.
District Attorney Armando R. Villalobos maintains that in addition to those details, attorneys should be able to access potential jurors’ Facebook profiles because “the more information [he and other attorneys] have, the better off [they] are going to be in getting a fair jury and getting the convictions and acquittals the system needs to function.”
I maintain that the more information those lovely legal teams have, the easier we’ll find it to ditch our civic duties when we’re not in the mood for them. [Houston Chronicle]
