Kastin E. Slaybaugh v. State of Indiana

After Kastin Slaybaugh was convicted of rape, he moved for mistrial on grounds there had been juror misconduct. His motion asserted that in voir dire, a juror had denied knowing the victim or her family, but Slaybaugh discovered that a relative of the victim was a “Facebook friend” of that juror. The trial court ordered the juror deposed. The juror testified she was a realtor, had more than 1000 “friends” on Facebook—most of whom she had “friend-ed” for networking purposes—but she had not recognized the victim’s name during voir dire, did not recognize the victim when she testified, and did…