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A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

arstechnica.com

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Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#191

Post by tefkah »

PxldLtd wrote: post #186
femto wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably no compensation. Under "English" law (Canada is a Commonwealth country), the wrongful conviction will probably to taken to be without malice and reasonable given the information the US provided, so tough luck. He might be able to negotiate an ex gratia payment, but this will be entirely at the whim of a politician, who will be looking to avoid being criticised for giving away government money

We used to charge innocent men for room and board in prison after being released here in the UK not long ago. They only changed this in 2023 after uproar in a recent case of an innocent man being freed.

That sounded so outlandish i needed to look it up, it's true... https://www.gov.uk/government/news/wrongly-convicted-no-long...

Although asterisk: those costs were being deducted from the final compensation. Still disgraceful that even happened.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#192

Post by dzhiurgis »

oersted wrote: post #165
dzhiurgis wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder if there are expert witnesses in videogame niche. I have no idea what you are talking about.

I understand that certain segments of the population have remained completely disassociated from videogames, and that's fine, but that doesn't make it a niche or an expert topic. Games make significantly more money than movies and TV now. More than 65M people bought Skyrim, and many more millions would recognise Fus-Ro-Dah just from spending time on the Internet anywhere near to gaming circles. The defendant could ha…

> Games make significantly more money than movies and TV now

Don't wanna accuse you of anything, but why would you assume thats an important metric for HN populace. I assume most people here don't own a TV to begin with (personal projection obvs).

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#194

Post by illliillll »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #168
illliillll wrote: post #143

[flagged]

No reason to believe this wasn't a one-off, either. I say dig up every case the judge has touched for thorough scrutiny.

Of course it wasn’t, this could never happen to a judge who is really serious about having things proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The evidence presented in this case wouldn’t have satisfied that standard even if all the underscores lined up.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#195

Post by tekla »

phyzix5761 wrote: post #161
Aurornis wrote: post #15

> Nothing linked Klayme to the girl. No intimate images were found. Klayme did have a Kik account, but cops couldn’t even show that he had accessed the service during the period in question. > Still, Klayme was arrested and hit with three charges: > Luring a person under 14 years of age by means of telecommunication > Providing sexually explicit material to a child > Possession of child pornography > The case went to…

As a software engineer the legal system scares me. How can we put someone in jail (for the rest of their lives in some cases) based on nebulous rules and personal interpretation/application of the law?

It's scary that people think being a software engineer makes them an expert in law

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#196

Post by nightowlnetwork »

expedition32 wrote: post #184
OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh something I can comment on! A friend of mine was facing a mountain of criminal charges. Photo evidence proved the cops lied. We needed an expert testimony explaining the camera angle and why the photo explained how the cops lied. I think we called every service qualified for providing such a testimony in Ontario, and a good portion of them across all of Canada. Some were even happy to work with us, until they foun…

Weird in my country we have a culture were scientists love going after eachother- its what they live for! Nothing gives you more fame than destroying other people's reputation. And overturning convictions gets you straight into the history books. It gets so ridiculous that people make their life work out of redoing cases from the 90s.

If you dont mind, which country is that?

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#197

Post by illliillll »

qingcharles wrote: post #106
a34729t wrote: post #43

Ultimately the prosecutor should then go to jail for say 10x the time. Maybe that would make prosecutors less zealous?

AFAIK, only one prosecutor in the history of the USA has been jailed for malicious prosecution or intentional fabrication of evidence. And in this case there was no intent (that we know) to convict an innocent person, just wild incompetence, so likely just a stern talking-to from the head prosecutor is all they get.

Obsessing about intent here is so gross.

A careless psychopath firing a gun into a crowd doesn’t necessarily care if he hits anyone. Despite the lack of intent, most would consider that careless psychopath worse than an individual that commits premeditated homicide for a reason other than “fun”.

Intent is irrelevant. The person firing a gun into a crowd knows the consequences of their actions just as well as a lazy judge or prosecutor does.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#198

Post by mothballed »

illliillll wrote: post #197
qingcharles wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, only one prosecutor in the history of the USA has been jailed for malicious prosecution or intentional fabrication of evidence. And in this case there was no intent (that we know) to convict an innocent person, just wild incompetence, so likely just a stern talking-to from the head prosecutor is all they get.

Obsessing about intent here is so gross. A careless psychopath firing a gun into a crowd doesn’t necessarily care if he hits anyone. Despite the lack of intent, most would consider that careless psychopath worse than an individual that commits premeditated homicide for a reason other than “fun”. Intent is irrelevant. The person firing a gun into a crowd knows the consequences of their actions just as well as a lazy j…

The job of the prosecutor is to convict, I don't think it matters whether the person is innocent or not. They have no moral responsibility, if it is most efficient to their career to damn an innocent person the system is designed for the purpose of doing so.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#199

Post by notabotiswear »

throw383949 wrote: post #146
qingcharles wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the Canadian justice system, but it's very hard in the USA for defendants to get expert witnesses. The state is supposed to pay, but it's almost never done, and when it is they pay bottom rate for the defendant while having unlimited funds for their own experts.

Canadian justice system is under stronge pressure to bring rate of conviction up. Only 0.001% rapist end in prison and bs like that. Some corners must be cut, to reach quotas!

Uh, how many rapists do you guys have trolling about to even manage to produce a percentage like that?

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#200

Post by sirsinsalot »

inigyou wrote: post #187
sirsinsalot wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than misplaced nihilism what's your point?

The justice system isn't the only thing that randomly kills you.

Right, and...?

Just because many things can do something doesn't negate a discussion about one of the things. Your point (which it barely is one) isn't really interesting or useful.

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