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(Editor’s note: This piece originally ran in the May 19, 2011, issue of the Briefly Legal PDX e-newsletter)

The Cameron County District Attorneys office in Brownsville, Texas, recently announced it will cull through Facebook profiles and postings to screen potential jurors. The county installed WiFi in its courtrooms, allowing prosecutors armed with iPads to screen juror profiles. They already use smart phones to do Google searches on potential jurors.

A growing number of trial attorneys across the country are using Facebook, Google and other online sources to screen potential jurors on everything from their religious and political beliefs to what they watch on television and their pet peeves. And lawyers in Oregon, it seems, are no exception.

Josh Marquis, Clatsop County district attorney, said he has used Facebook to do background searches on potential jurors for murder trials, including the case to determine whether convicted murderer Randy Guzek should get the death penalty.

鈥淣ormally with jury selection, you frankly don’t have time to do it because usually it occurs within an hour or an hour and a half, so you don’t leave the courtroom,鈥� Marquis says, noting Oregon courtrooms are not equipped with WiFi.

鈥淐apital and aggravated murder cases are different, though. In the Guzek retrial, it took about three weeks to present the evidence and another three weeks just to select the jury,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚n a murder case the jury has to be unanimous, so you really can’t afford to make a mistake, particularly as a prosecutor.鈥�

Joseph Rice, president and chief executive officer of the Jury Research Institute in Alamo, Calif., said social media is simply the latest tool in the age-old effort to learn more about jurors. Some 30 years ago, investigators compiled 鈥渏ury books鈥� filled with public records information such as whether a potential juror had had a scrape with the law or been involved in a legal dispute.

Facebook, Twitter and even blogs can provide attorneys with more valuable information than traditional juror questionnaires. Rice says. But he cautions that constraints such as time limitations and Internet access in courtrooms may limit how widely the trend spreads.

鈥淭he big ethical issue that the industry has to deal with is to what extent you can access what is truly public versus someone misrepresenting who they are so they can become a juror’s friend,” Rice says. “That clearly crosses the line and violates the privacy of jurors.鈥�

As far as official guidance on the ethics of using social media to screen prospective jurors, the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association has no comment. The Oregon State Bar’s Legal Ethics Committee is currently writing an opinion about the issue. It will present its opinion to the OSB Board of Governors later this year.