By Amanda Bronstad
The National Law Journal
October 19, 2009

The Indiana Supreme Court, addressing a “novel question,” ruled that prosecutors properly introduced electronic evidence from an accused murderer’s MySpace page.

In so doing, the court upheld the conviction of Ian Clark, who was found guilty of murdering his fiancee’s 2-year-old daughter. Clark objected to his conviction on various grounds, including whether comments he made on his MySpace page were permissible evidence under Indiana law.

The court found that they were.

The case addressed a “novel question: should the trial court have permitted the State to offer into evidence Clark’s entry from the social networking website MySpace?” Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall Shepard wrote in the Oct. 15 opinion. “Clark’s posting contained only statements about himself and in reference to himself. Thus, the State is right to observe that this is solely evidence of his own statements, not of prior criminal acts.”

For more, read here.