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Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

filmingcops.com

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Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#81

Post by trekky1700 »

Crito wrote: post #69
trekky1700 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By god, is the human race so savage that we resort to killing so quickly. This is a life, something some people would consider priceless. Not something you can view arithmetically, calculating the hours in damage caused versus somebody's time left.

Do we actually think that a human life is priceless, or is that just something that we say that we think to make ourselves feel good about ourselves? We regularly put a price on human life in civil cases, and that price always seems to be finite and fairly low.

Which is a truly disparaging fact, while a human life may not be priceless, putting a value on it draws a very interesting ethical line in the sand. I agree with you, but I would say the life of any human should be worth a hell of a lot and the idea of taking one should be met with the utmost seriousness and avoided at all costs.

The last thing this planet needs is more death and killing.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#82

Post by enjo »

goldenkey wrote: post #32

Are we seriously up in arms about the chemist? The prosecutors are the worse filth here. And the worst thing about it is that the DA and the prosecutors are going to bury her into the ground, and villify her, while they get away totally scott-free. The system just keeps on churning.. “Any help would be greatly appreciated!” he wrote, punctuating each sentence with a long string of exclamation points. “Thank you!”

Can we be up in arms about..you know...both?

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#83

Post by marvin »

austinz wrote: post #60

I find it hard to believe she'd be the only person to do these sorts of things. How many other people across the US in similar positions are surreptitiously tampering with the legal system right now? And how can we find them?

Spot on. It's outrageous that one person was able to cause this much damage, but the sentencing in this case very strongly indicates that there is a perverse system of incentives which allows things like this to happen. As long as someone profits, economically or otherwise, on people being sent to jail, there is an incentive structure which perverts justice. It's shocking to be that there isn't more focus on this problem.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#84

Post by Crito »

trekky1700 wrote: post #81
Crito wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we actually think that a human life is priceless, or is that just something that we say that we think to make ourselves feel good about ourselves? We regularly put a price on human life in civil cases, and that price always seems to be finite and fairly low.

Which is a truly disparaging fact, while a human life may not be priceless, putting a value on it draws a very interesting ethical line in the sand. I agree with you, but I would say the life of any human should be worth a hell of a lot and the idea of taking one should be met with the utmost seriousness and avoided at all costs. The last thing this planet needs is more death and killing.

I can't disagree with any of that.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#85

Post by [deleted] »

trekky1700 wrote: post #57
msandford wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Superficially I have to agree with you that I look like a hypocrite. The government is the body which has a monopoly on violence. In other words, they're the only people who can legally do things to people that nobody would volunteer to have done to them, like going to prison. It's the government's job to provide courts through which disputes can be resolved, since you aren't supposed to take matters into your own ha…

By god, is the human race so savage that we resort to killing so quickly. This is a life, something some people would consider priceless. Not something you can view arithmetically, calculating the hours in damage caused versus somebody's time left.

[deleted]

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#86

Post by DontGiveTwoFlux »

whiddershins wrote: post #11

How hard would it have been to insert a random cross check in to the system? So every 300 tests, the sample is retested by another lab? There's no motivation or incentive whatsoever to structure the process to decrease convictions, that is one of the unspoken but defining features of our legal system. There is an ideal that two sides are arguing something in a neutral setting, but one side is the government, and lite…

Well, it wouldn't necessarily preclude tampering with the evidence. The article seemed to indicate that it wasn't just reports that were falsified. For instance, in the marijuana weight issue mentioned in the article, she could have slipped in some extra to put it over the weight limit before sending it off to another lab. Maybe cross checking would help, but systemic changes would probably be better.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#87

Post by robryan »

Someone wrote: post #52

Embarassing for the government, criminal, etc? Yes, but the title (both on HN and in the original) is sensationalistic. 40,000 cases in 10 years? That's around 15 cases per working day. She must have almost done a search and replace to be that 'productive'. Because of that, I suspect the 'up to 40,000' means there are 40,000 cases that she might have affected, not that she is known to have affected.

I guess she might oversee a lab staff and that is the total case volume going through that lab?

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#88

Post by gmaslov »

enjo wrote: post #82
goldenkey wrote: post #32

Are we seriously up in arms about the chemist? The prosecutors are the worse filth here. And the worst thing about it is that the DA and the prosecutors are going to bury her into the ground, and villify her, while they get away totally scott-free. The system just keeps on churning.. “Any help would be greatly appreciated!” he wrote, punctuating each sentence with a long string of exclamation points. “Thank you!”

Can we be up in arms about..you know...both?

At this rate I'm fast running out of arms

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#89

Post by rurounijones »

aeturnum wrote: post #63
goldenkey wrote: post #32

Are we seriously up in arms about the chemist? The prosecutors are the worse filth here. And the worst thing about it is that the DA and the prosecutors are going to bury her into the ground, and villify her, while they get away totally scott-free. The system just keeps on churning.. “Any help would be greatly appreciated!” he wrote, punctuating each sentence with a long string of exclamation points. “Thank you!”

I agree that the prosecutors are probably guilty of some kind of misconduct. However, I think the email you quote is the kind we would see either way. We expect prosecutors to be unabashed in their pursuit of convictions - it's their job. They should cajole and berate, in turn, people who help or hinder their cases. That may be a shitty model, but it's the model we use. We have a responsibility to only punish people…

> They should cajole and berate

Not at people performing ANY tests on evidence.

Re: Government Chemist Tampered With 40,000 Cases

#90

Post by msandford »

trekky1700 wrote: post #58
conjecTech wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument is one of semantics. He is a defender of those who have not deprived others of their right to life. This is the reason why both the word murder and the word kill exist. There is a fundamental difference that you don't appreciate.

Unless there was a death penalty administered due to this, she has not deprived anyone of "life" in the sense suggested. She denied their freedom, and this is a grave injustice, but not one fit for a death penalty. How savage and petty that would be.

What is worth more, 50 years of a single person's life or 10,000 years of many people's lives? If it's really hard to comprehend 50 years of a single person's life how impossible is it to truly understand what 10,000 years of human life is?

If you have 40,000 cases and only say 1/4 of them get falsified and that results in on average one year of wrongful imprisonment you're at 10,000 years.

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