Ark. death row inmate gets new trial thanks to tweeting juror

(CBS/AP) LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Arkansas Supreme Court has tossed out a death row inmate's murder conviction, after finding misconduct among jurors who slept and tweeted during the proceedings.

The court on Thursday voided Erickson Dimas-Martinez's 2010 conviction in the slaying of 17-year-old Derrick Jefferson. Dimas-Martinez's attorneys appealed his conviction over a juror tweeting during the trial, despite the judge's instruction not to post on the internet or otherwise communicate with anyone about the case. The lawyers also complained that another juror slept.

In one tweet, juror Randy Franco wrote: "Choices to be made. Hearts to be broken...We each define the great line." Less than an hour before the jury announced its verdict, he tweeted: "It's over."

Other tweets by Franco made passing references to the trial, with posts such as, "the coffee sucks here" and "Court. Day 5. Here we go again."

An assistant attorney general last month defended the judge's decision to not dismiss the tweeting juror, saying his tweets were merely about the juror's feelings and not about specifics of the trial.

Arkansas Supreme Court justices disagreed.

"Because of the very nature of Twitter as an ... online social media site, Juror 2's tweets about the trial were very much public discussions. Even if such discussions were one-sided, it is in no way appropriate for a juror to state musings, thoughts, or other information about a case in such a public fashion," Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote.

Corbin also argued that a wide array of juror misconduct can come into play when jurors have unrestricted access to their cell phones during a trial, citing their ability access to news sites as well as social media.

Dimas-Martinez, now 26, was sent to death row for robbing and shooting Jefferson after a party in northwest Arkansas in 2006. Prosecutors said Dimas-Martinez held the 17-year-old  at gunpoint and demanded his money before he shot him.

The justices sent the case back to Benton County for a new trial.