Live data from Hacker News

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

theregister.com

491–500 of 520 posts

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

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no reason to presume they did their own validation correctly absent proof of same.

I think this is the crux of the problem. If the defendant gets to decide when validation is sufficient then should they ever say it is sufficient?

When the jury agrees the evidence is there beyond a reasonable doubt. No one should trust any black box when it comes to criminal prosecution.

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

#492
post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

170,000 lines of Matlab code for a project is not a good sign. Unless they’re also including the source of various Matlab toolboxes which are already tested by the Mathworks. It’s such a high-level language it’s hard to imagine what the hell they’re doing with all that code. It’s probably mostly useless cruft from GUIDE.

I’ve made 4 decent sized gui based tools before. I would never use GUIDE. At minimum it uses eval. If you want a terrible gui-based gui creation interface: labview awaits.

I compiled eval once for fun.

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

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The burden of proof does not suddenly fall on the defendant just because one for-profit conviction company can’t back up their product.

Who said they can’t back it up? The defendant claimed he needed to review it. The company presumably has done its own validation.

>presumably

>their own validation

That is not how things are proven.

“You don’t need to know how we came to this scientific conclusion.” An appeal to authority doesn’t fly in science and it certainly doesn’t in law.

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

#494
post #492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve made 4 decent sized gui based tools before. I would never use GUIDE. At minimum it uses eval. If you want a terrible gui-based gui creation interface: labview awaits.

I compiled eval once for fun.

A friend of mine did that. They were able to run arbitrary .m files from an executable. As far as I know, this doesn't violate any terms of use. I wonder what keeps someone from just downloading the freely available MATLAB runtime and running a compiled eval wrapper and suddenly have a freely available version of MATLAB.

Also just because eval can be compiled doesn't mean it should. It will forever be a security risk and I will not write code that uses it in good conscious. Fortunately, Mathworks has provided good alternatives. My personal favorite has been variable field names. It really opens up a lot of elegant coding.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/string-eva...

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

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that middle zone (that most of us probably live in) is terrifying. And it’s why we get conned into so many different types of insurance. “One disaster and all that progress is gone.”

"Yes, that middle zone (that most of us probably live in) is terrifying" More terrifying than the bottom where you got nothing to loose? I doubt it. Otherwise, why be afraid of it?

To be clear, I don’t think the bottom is any less terrifying. It’s just the anxiety of being poor and powerless is now replaced by reality.

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

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the crux of the problem. If the defendant gets to decide when validation is sufficient then should they ever say it is sufficient?

When the jury agrees the evidence is there beyond a reasonable doubt. No one should trust any black box when it comes to criminal prosecution.

So the prosecution can present its case and say they gave the defendant the code for 9 months and here are five other independent reviews. The defense can argue they needed more time. The jury then decides if there is reasonable doubt.

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

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grossly oversimplifying it, but it is what my lawyer uncles say, and is consistent with what I saw as a juror on a civil trial involving many topics I'm personally an expert in, expert witnesses are paid to lie on the stand. At the very least they are paid very very well (the amount they were paid was emphasized at the trial I was at) to state only the information consistent with what the person paying them wanted to…

They answer any question put to them. The defense has to ask the right questions of course. I know expert witnesses. They are of impeccable character, and will seek to educate as well as they are allowed.

The experience I had, which was pretty cool (although the case overall was very very depressing) in that we the jury were allowed to anonymously submit questions for the judge to ask the witnesses as well."They answer any question put to them." definitely did not apply to all of them. There were many, painful to watch, who at best gave half answers. I'd say the expert witness in the movie "my cousin Vinny" who testifies that the tire marks between the two cars are identical and that it is possible for both cars to have made the tire marks, while knowing that it was literally impossible for the defendants car to make the marks on the road, is very very close to what I saw experts do. In my case it was dumber, though. We had experts talking about how far a driver can see to recognize that a pedestrian is walking across a road and all of his citations were referencing daylight illumination. Thankfully, us jurors were able ask questions like "All of your citations are for daylight illumination. You know this case is about an accident at 3am and the streetlights were broken. What's the distance in that case?" And they would answer that question appropriately, but I didn't consider it impeccable character that they had acted all the while up to that point like the numbers they were giving were for the conditions of the case. And yes, they would always say they were familiar with the conditions of the case before answering any questions, so I generally felt is was lying by omission.

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

#498
post #452
post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not all poor people are stupid.

Yes. Not sure how is it relevant. I don't expect small town judges and cops to be particularly poor, or particularly stupid for that matter. I do expect them to be uneducated and uncaring.

Is hatefulness an end in itself for you?

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

#499
post #285
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one should use mail in voting either...

Except for the sick, disabled, elderly, deceased, people overseas or out-of-town, anyone in the military that's deployed, people who don't have good access to transportation, people who work long continuous shifts like healthcare workers and firefighters, poll workers, people in jail awaiting their trials, people with stalkers...

Deceased? Why should dead people get to vote? Their votes should be first ones to be invalidated...

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

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what if I say i need to review camera footage of me doing a crime and it will take me 100 years to validate it? You need to establish reasonable timelines for this or any guilty person will claim any technology used will take 100 years to verify. There is no reason you can’t analyze a DNA analysis codebase in 6 months. Unless you also need to verify the science.

I am not clear what you are arguing - it there a real problem where people invent fantastical amount of time to review simple evidence? The claim about the amount of time was not made by the defendant, it was from the company that produced the code.

Thanks for the clarification -- I actually misread it and thought the defendant was making the claim. With it being the company, then I agree that the company has an obligation to make review simple enough that it can be done in a reasonable amount of time (from someone knowledgeable in the field -- I still don't think we need to allow someone 10 years to understand statistics and progreamming before even beginning the code review) or recuse the tool from use in a trial.
Post reply on HN