When search engines take the stand: Courts go Googling

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5211658.html

Search engines take the stand
Last modified: May 13, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT
By Declan McCullagh

Fifteen years after his trial, a convicted drug dealer in New York state 
belatedly got a chance to clear his name--thanks in part to an Internet 
search.

A federal judge last November threw out Manuel Rodriguez's conviction 
and granted him a new trial after discovering evidence of potential jury 
tampering in a review of court records and queries on Web search engine 
Google. U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas said that his review of the 
1988 court transcript, coupled with looking up jurors' names in Google, 
had revealed that the assistant district attorney had "improperly" 
removed Hispanics.

"A Google search that I conducted" suggested that a removed juror had "a 
Hispanic name," Maas wrote in the court decision overturning the conviction.

Rodriguez finished his sentence before his new trial could take place. 
But his case nevertheless offers a striking illustration of the growing 
clout of Internet search engines among the judiciary--a controversial 
trend that's so far garnered little attention outside legal circles.

In the United States and abroad, judges are turning to search engines 
such as Google to check facts, to look up information about companies 
embroiled in litigation, and to challenge statistics presented by 
attorneys in court. Dozens of judges have penned opinions describing 
Google as a valuable--and sometimes crucial--source of knowledge...

In one case in Ohio, a judge who ordered a mother not to smoke near her 
8-year-old daughter cited medical journals and a Google search that 
lists 60,000-plus links for "secondhand smoke" and 30,000-plus links for 
"secondhand smoke children." In addition, the California Supreme Court 
has Googled for evidence showing that stun belts, which jolt prisoners 
with 50,000-volt electric shocks, can be harmful and should not have 
been used in a criminal trial. And an enterprising federal judge in New 
York did his own Google search to demonstrate that a watch, jeans and 
handbag retailer named Alfredo Versace was infringing the trademarks of 
the famous Gianni Versace design house...

After conducting a Web search, an Australian federal court last June 
denied a visa request from an unidentified man from Sri Lanka. The court 
said the man's claim to be a famous filmmaker worried about persecution 
at home was "exaggerated," after a query turned up a blank. "His name 
does not appear when put into a search engine such as Google," one 
member of the government tribunal wrote. "I would have expected--if he 
indeed has the notoriety and is as well-known as he claims--that his 
name would have appeared at least in some context."

[...remainder snipped...]
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