A juror in the “Tinder murder trial” of thirty-year-old Australian Gable Tostee almost caused the case to be retried because she was uploading photos to Instagram.
The juror commented on Instagram posts during the trial, causing a delay and defense attorney Saul Holt QC argued that the jury should be dismissed and the trial should be canceled. She was reprimanded by Judge John Byrne for her hashtag-heavy and diary-style posts, according to the ABC.
However, after two hours of deliberation, the judge concluded that the comments – despite being dangerous – did not provide sufficient evidence to quash the trial.
“I think any social media commentary about the trial is certainly dangerous,” Queensland Law Society deputy president Christine Smyth said as he left. “It’s very important because we’re dealing with the lives of a young man and his family and the death of a young woman and her family.”
If the jury had found the woman guilty of publications , not only would the trial have been canceled but she would also have run the risk of two years in prison.
The Jury Act 1995 (QLD) stated that even cute coffee photos could cause a huge problem in the trial, so jurors must be quite careful and responsible with the work assigned to them.
This misunderstanding could be the result of either the judge's unclear instructions or the jury's naivety.
It is argued that the law on jury rules should be amended to include restrictions on the use of social media. Of course, it is difficult to require a social media user to give up social media for a period of time.
Gable Tostee was acquitted of manslaughter after being found not guilty of the murder of twenty-six-year-old Warriena Wright from New Zealand.
