If you have been charged with a criminal offense in Massachusetts you will have a number of important decisions to make throughout the prosecution of your case. One of those decisions is whether or not to take your case to trial. If you do decide to proceed to trial you will then need to decide whether to let a jury decide your fate or waive your right to a trial by jury and try your case to a judge. Topics in this report include: Your Right to a Trial by Jury Exercising or Waiving Your Right to … [Read more...]
Juror Use of Social Media Tainting Verdicts
Boston, MA criminal defense lawyer, Kevin J. Mahoney, discusses the unsettling trend of jurors using social media to comment on an ongoing trial.Despite the fact that judges routinely and repeatedly warn jurors not to discuss the case with anyone outside the courtroom, jurors often do. Recently, they have been doing so electronically, on Facebook or other forms of social media.Consider, for example, the case of Commonwealth v. Werner. Ms. Werner was convicted of stealing money from the college … [Read more...]
