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Originally Posted by Jen
Improper convictions are *mostly* a thing of the past.
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I can't see how this can be verified. How can we ever know what proportion of convictions are wrongful?
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With todays technology, we tend to get the convictions right much more often.
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I wouldn't dispute that technology has improved the likelihood of getting it right. At the same time, I think it would be naive to place too much trust in technology.
In fact, there's a worrying aspect to it. Jurors are largely, in my view, poorly equipped to judge the quality of scientific evidence. This may sound arrogant, but I don't think the standard of scientific literacy is very high. Jurors tend to be uncritical about prosecution evidence that sounds sciencey, in the same way they are uncritical about eye-witness testimony (which we now know is often less reliable than it might appear).