Unsuitable Jurors v Unsuitable Students!

Frances Gibb in the Times Online reports that the 'internet generation' is not used to listening for long periods and therefore could be unsuitable as jurors, according to the Lord Chief Justice.

Lord Judge said that many young people are “technically proficient” and obtain “much information from the internet”.  That meant that they were “not listening, they are reading,” he said in a lecture to the University of Hertfordshire.  “One potential problem is whether, learning as they do in this way, they will be accustomed, as we were, to listening for prolonged periods.”

Does this relate to students too?!  I'd be more than happy if my students would make their own enquiries and read around the subject matter addressed in lectures and seminars - but clearly this would be undesirable for jurors to be googling away on their blackberries in the privacy of the jury room or anywhere else for that matter!

Earlier this year, Dennis Coxe had an interesting blog post entitled "Let me tell you about...Excuse me, what were you saying?" about the general public's attention span - and if you're still reading this post, well done, and keep going!

According to Killian & Company, we're all starting to lose interest, and perhaps our students can be added, along with jurors, to the low-attentive YouTube audience at the bottom of this graph.  Perhaps the Courts are still in the Dickensian era (despite recent attempts to modernise court dress), and rather than spin out a prosecution case over three days, we should have a blog post from the CPS where the defence can comment and reply!

But on a serious note, I was in court a couple of weeks ago and a joint memorandum was submitted to the jury in relation to the evidence of a fire arms expert.  I would have liked to hear the evidence (as I was sat in the public gallery), but I wondered if the jury would take more interest in the written submission than they would if it was done orally?  Likewise, I wonder if my students would prefer a reading list, podcast and the occasional session for Q&A?!?

25 Nov - Follow-up: it seems that a juror at Burnley Crown Court has been discussing details of a trial on FaceBook - see The Guardian and The telegraph for details - it seems she posted a poll to ask friends how she should vote as she couldn't decide either way!