Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration (Norman Costa)

Cleared of Rape but Lacking Full Exoneration (Norman Costa)

By JOHN SCHWARTZ New York Times, Published: September 24, 2011

This article covers, exactly, some of the legal issues we have been discussing in the Troy Davis case. Very, very interesting commentary on, and analysis of, our legal system - particulary the appeals process.

Read more HERE.

 

Comments

[Dean C. Rowan]

The case "raises fundamental questions about the administration of justice." That is an understatement, Prof. Kafka. How odd that a court system intent on reducing its workload--one of the rationales used to justify finality--would demand an encore from the former convict. Don't all those judges want to go golfing or something?

The discussion is a bit too sanguine, if you'll pardon the pun, about DNA evidence, the vagaries of which we're just beginning to understand. Courts are not sufficiently adept with statistics. A professor here who is studying these developments recently wrote, "[M]ost courts and litigants grappling with the question of sufficiency have fallen prey to statistical fallacies. Most commonly, they mistake the RMP [random match probability], the chance that a person randomly selected from the population will match the profile, for the 'source probability,' the ultimate probability that the defendant is the source of the DNA, and thus fail to correctly assess the strength of the DNA evidence." I ascribe the over-eagerness to trust the numbers to journalistic science-lust.

[Norman Costa]

@ Dean:

It took me a couple of minutes to get the 'sanguine-DNA' pun. It must be late. An interesting if perplexing case, Yes? I was not aware of the RPM vs the source probability issue with DNA in the courts. Thanks.

[Franz Kafka]

Herr Dean C. Rowan,

Kind sir. My writings deal with absurdities, critiques of bureaucracies, and searches for redemption. My treatment of the legal proceedings in "The Trial" is on a metaphysical level. They are absurd, bewildering, and, should I say, "Kafkaesque."

Sincerely,

Franz

[Dean C. Rowan]

Yes, Norm, the case is interesting and perplexing...and heartbreaking. Haynesworth's lost life is irrecoverable, and yet the state continues to plod through bureaucratic inertia for the sake of vague, abstract principles of no real value to anybody. It's perverse.

Franz, mein Freund! If I'd known that an incidental mention of an author would conjure his or her spirit in reply, I might have opted for Emily Dickinson or Walter Benjamin, but I'm honored you've chosen to appear.

[Dean C. Rowan]

A ray of light out of Ohio? The comments are priceless, exactly what you'd expect from WSJ readers.

[Ruchira]

It is indeed a ray of light. John Kasich will now have to appease the Tea Partiers by going after unions, public schools and social security, I suppose. Most southern governors wouldn't even bother with tainted evidence, let alone a tainted childhood.

Anyway, what was wrong with the comments? Except the first one, the rest seem to support Kasich.

[Dean C. Rowan]

The first one and the one from the Law Blog regular, "Herb Spencer." They're pithy, and pace "Dear Scott," mean-spirited. If you want a clearer example of dysfunctional tribalism, look no further than the first comment's "idiot R I N O." Why such devotion to the name, "Republican"? Here's a Republican (one must assume) who's sense of party integrity demands that no Republican can have an idea or an opinion that conflicts with his own.