Is this e-Discovery Insights or The Darwin Awards? It might be hard to tell today…
The Indiana Supreme Court upheld a murder conviction against a man who beat to death the two-year-old daughter of his girlfriend. The Court stated that admitting boasts he made about the crime on MySpace into evidence at trial did not violate the rules.
His lawyer appealed the original conviction, claiming that allowing the evidence to be presented prejudiced his client.
As far as I'm concerned, this is 'Evidence 101', folks. If you place your character at issue during a criminal trial – as defendant did here – you 'open the door' to the prosecution to rebut with their own character evidence.
Like the article says, it doesn't matter whether you boast at your local bar or on MySpace; it has no effect on the rules of evidence.
