Accused murderer wins right to check source code of DNA testing kit

Post by melq » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

gidan wrote: post #223

nickodell wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My prediction: this firm will probably try to get removed from the case, rather than open source their shitty code. That isn't necessarily their choice. The prosecutors will make the decision about whether to withdraw the DNA evidence. They probably won't, given that they would need to give the defendant a new trial, which could lead to an accused murderer getting off. A bad look for any prosecutor. More to the poin…

That would be implying that the prosecutor would prefer taking the life of an innocent rather than having it hurt his career, making the prosecutor kind of a criminal.

Post by edgyquant » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 9:28 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #229

phire wrote: post #93

> The co-founder of the company, Mark Perlin, is said to have argued against source code analysis by claiming that the program, consisting of 170,000 lines of MATLAB code, is so dense it would take eight and a half years to review at a rate of ten lines an hour. First, the defence doesn't necessarily have to evaluate all 170,000 lines. They just need to find one buggy line which could potentially overturn the result.…

8 years is a long time. What he then wanted to code review Matlab, and then the compiler that Matlab used, then do some silicon verification... Six to nine months seems like enough to do a very good code review with some testing. There's a good chance that 75% of that Matlab code doesn't execute for his test.

Post by XorNot » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 9:34 PM UTC

gidan wrote: post #223

nickodell wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My prediction: this firm will probably try to get removed from the case, rather than open source their shitty code. That isn't necessarily their choice. The prosecutors will make the decision about whether to withdraw the DNA evidence. They probably won't, given that they would need to give the defendant a new trial, which could lead to an accused murderer getting off. A bad look for any prosecutor. More to the poin…

That would be implying that the prosecutor would prefer taking the life of an innocent rather than having it hurt his career, making the prosecutor kind of a criminal.

Post by cyberlurker » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 9:40 PM UTC

heavyset_go wrote: post #252

carlmr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd get an expert witness in there to testify basically that. I also don't think you should code anything mission critical like this in Matlab. It's a decent language for prototyping, not for production.

> I'd get an expert witness in there to testify basically that. Sounds really expensive.

Post by cyberlurker » Mon, Feb 08, 2021, 9:45 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #214

vmception wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People sometimes ask me what my “number” is, like how much net worth or “money” I want, what would I do with it I say “I want to be able to afford appeals court where my rights matter” Infinite appeals court! Most people plea out, cant make bail, dont have counsel buddy buddy with the judge enough to get you bail, and lose the ability to keep good counsel for more and more motions and appeals I want that, there is al…

I have the same line of reasoning when people talk about having enough to feel secure. Even simple civil legal matters cost in the tens of thousands of dollars easy. And the system works so that you’re either rich enough to be able to defend yourself and the money spent doesn’t affect you, you’re poor enough that you have nothing to lose, or you’re in the middle, busy trying to get from poor to rich, but you are vuln…