Irvin smith was charged in a Georgia state court with burglary and theft. Before the trail, during the selection of the jury, the state prosecutor asked the prospective jurors whether they knew smith. No one responded affirmatively.
Jurors were chosen and sworn in, without objection. After the trial, during deliberations, the jurors indicated to the court they were deadlocked.
The court charged them to try again. Meanwhile, the prosecutor learned that juror 4 appeared as a friend on the defendant's facebook page and filed a motion to dismiss her.
The court replaced juror 4 with an alternate, was this an appropriate action, or was it an abuse of discretion?
Should the court have admitted evidence that facebook friends do not always know each other? Discuss.