What don't some jurors understand about 'don't'?

Jury duty is a time-consuming and essentially thankless job. It is also a job that is vital to the administration of justice as we know it.
And it is a job that must be done right, with jurors answering truthfully whatever questions they are asked and following scrupulously the instructions given to them by the judge.
The instructions are generally not that complex and should not be difficult to perform. Maintain an open mind until deliberations begin. Avoid news accounts of the trial. Don't discuss the case with anyone, even other jurors until deliberations begin. That sort of thing.
It's disturbing, then, to see two cases in as many weeks in which local trials were halted and mistrials declared because of juror misconduct.
A little outside reading
In Columbiana County, the trial of a doctor charged with having illegal sexual conduct with a patient was halted after two jurors admitted reading a newspaper article about the proceedings.
The jury had just begun its deliberations when the foreman notified the judge that two jurors told the rest of the panel they had read a newspaper account of the trial earlier in the day and that the article referred to a similar charge the doctor faced in another court.
In Trumbull County, a case of driving under the influence ended in a mistrial after a juror had a casual conversation with a police officer who had been a prosecution witness. In that instance, both the juror and the officer should have known better.
The driver's lawyer is now arguing that the case should be dropped since misconduct by a prosecution witness caused the mistrial.
Whatever the eventual outcome of these cases, the delay, the inconvenience to all concerned, the added burden on the court docket and the expense of new trials could have been avoided if the jurors and witness involved had simply done what they were told.
As we said, jury service is a tedious and thankless job, but such misconduct can't and shouldn't be tolerated. Instances such as these raise questions about what other instructions the jurors may be ignoring. Perhaps judges are going to have to be more forceful in their pre-trial lectures to jurors, and maybe it will take finding the next erring juror in contempt to make people take notice.
When a judge tells the jurors, don't talk, don't read, don't prejudge, the rules apply to every juror on the panel. Those who ignore the judge's instructions and the law should get something more forceful than an expression of disappointment by the judge before they are sent home.