A Maryland appeals court has overturned a first-degree felony-murder conviction because a deliberating juror had conducted an online search of scientific terms related to how blood flows after death.
The juror’s Wikipedia search denied Allan Jake Clark a fair trial because “the right to an impartial jury embraces the right to have the case decided exclusively on the evidence that is produced in open court,” the Court of Special Appeals held in an unreported opinion.
According to the article, a juror looked up the terms “livor mortis” and “algor mortis” on Wikipedia and printed the pages out. The appeals court ruling was 3-0. The article goes on to say that, earlier this year in Wardlaw v. State, the appeals court threw out an assault conviction because a juror in the original trial looked up the term “oppositional defiant disorder.”
In this most recent case, the judge let the trial continue after the juror said he could put aside what he found in his online search.
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