Appeals Court: Prosecutor’s Tweets Don’t Merit Reversal In Child Rapist Case

Though a prosecutor’s tweets during a trial that convicted an accused child rapist were ill-timed, a Missouri appeals court ruled there is no evidence the jury was aware of them and the tweets do not merit a reversal in the case. In its ruling, the court did criticize the practice of tweeting details of the case during trial, even if the information is part of the public record. “We doubt that using social media to highlight the evidence against the accused and publicly dramatize the plight of the victim serves any legitimate law enforcement purpose or is necessary to inform the public of the nature and extent of the prosecutor’s actions,” the court wrote. “[E]xtraneous statements on Twitter or other forms of social media, particularly during the time frame of the trial, can taint the jury and result in reversal of the verdict.”