Defense lawyer in Bonusgate trial argues use of Twitter interferes with right to fair trial

Defense lawyer in Bonusgate trial argues use of Twitter interferes with right to fair trial
By CHARLES THOMPSON, The Patriot-News
January 19, 2010, 8:37PM

We’re a state that doesn’t, without special order, allow cameras in the courtroom.

So it was only a matter of time, then, that “tweeting” — the instantaneous posting of short, in-the-moment updates to voluntary recipients — would set Pennsylvania’s criminal justice world scrambling for the law libraries.....

....Perretta-Rosepink’s attorney, Michael Palermo, has argued that reporting via Twitter could run smack into his client’s right to a fair trial.....

.....To Palermo, a Carlisle attorney who boasts about being one of the first lawyers in the area to keep his calendar on his iPhone, there is a significant risk that needs to be considered here.

“This is so witnesses can’t line up their testimony,” he said after arguing his point in a closed conference before Lewis Tuesday. “That’s why they’re sequestered in the first place. So they’re not in there listening to everybody else’s testimony.”

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