Stanford Seeks New Trial Based Partly on Journalists' Courtroom Tweets
Lawyers for convicted Texas financier R. Allen Stanford are seeking a new trial partly because journalists were allowed to tweet news of off-the-record courtroom conferences.
In court documents, lawyer Ali Fazel wrote that the tweets resulted in “instantaneous dissemination of information,” the the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports.
“This broadcasting is likely to have reached a juror, since Twitter does not require active pursuit of information, but rather, if a friend of the juror’s was following the ‘Stanford trial,’ the tweets might automatically show up on a juror’s Twitter account,” the motion says.
Stanford was convicted earlier this month of 13 counts in a $7 billion fraud case based on allegations he bilked investors who bought certificates of deposit at his offshore bank.
