Casey Anthony Trial

[Stormieweather]

So I heard today that there was a pro bono expert analysing social media (tweets specifically) during the trial to get a feeling for what the public felt about the prosecutions case as they were putting it on. They shared this info with the defense who then tailored their strategy to what they believed would most dramatically affect the jury.

Ie: if a lot of tweets said the public didn't like the father and felt he was hiding something, the defense would then create doubt around the father and a conspiracy of silence involving him.

Wanna bet judges start ordering tweeting out of their courtrooms?

Also, I've read that there are allegations of witness tampering, which are being investigated by the police. No idea who or what, however.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Stormieweather

Wanna bet judges start ordering tweeting out of their courtrooms?

They can and usually do ban cell phones in the courthouse. The tweets would have been out in the real world by people watching it on TV. There's nothing the judge can do about that.

Experts telling lawyers how to tug on the heartstrings of the jury is a long and pretty advanced tradition. It's even what Dr. Phil did before he was discovered by Oprah and got his own TV show.

Edit: What surprises me is that somebody did it pro bono. They must have been fairly new to the field and were trying to build up their resume.