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> The efficiency gains and extra data to help the justice system come to accurate judgments is far too large That's an admirable way of looking at the US just
by Legical 8y ago
> The efficiency gains and extra data to help the justice system come to accurate judgments is far too large
That's an admirable way of looking at the US justice system, but not quite how it really works. The system is adversarial, and "the truth" is a narrative advocated by one of the combatants.
Given enough data, a DA could choose which facts fit their narrative and present a very convincing "truth" to a jury. Unless defendants have access to the entire dataset and can select their own datapoints to refute that narrative, they're fighting at an extreme disadvantage.
Picture a scenario where a person gets murdered, and you're on trial because the only evidence the police have is a smart streetlight log of your car's whereabouts that show you parked in front of a mob-owned business and later in front of the victims house. Your truth is a simple dinner and date with the victims neighbor. The DA's truth is "backed by data".
Yes, this sounds far-fetched and may be an oversimplification, but it's important to remember that the justice system isn't programming and access to more general data doesn't necessarily level the playing field.
- kolbe 8y agoThat's an edgy way of looking at the justice system, but not quite how it really works. Discovery explains away most of your hypothetical. Why is your account only 30 minutes old? You're clearly an old user. Why the throwaway account?
- wolfgang42 8y ago> Why is your account only 30 minutes old? You're clearly an old user. Why the throwaway account? Why the combative tone, and how are you so certain that Legical is an 'old user' with a throwaway?
- kolbe 8y agoHe understands the forum's quoting conventions. He referenced programming. He responded quickly, and got several up votes quickly but few afterwards (i.e. it looks like he extinguished his alt login voting power). Lazy username. He's writing extremist views with no justification designed to undermine confidence in the US. It just hits a little close to what I would expect from a non genuine member.
- wolfgang42 8y agoI'm not seeing anything in your explanation that couldn't be explained away as someone who had been lurking for a while and happened to decide to write a comment for the first time around the time the post fell off the front page. Besides, from the guidelines: > Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data. On the topic of "extremist views with no justification," there are a great many people in the US who are concerned about the imbalance of power in the criminal justice system. Handwaving these concerns away with, "it's not a problem, just hire a lawyer who can go through the pile of data during discovery" doesn't strike me as an effective argument.