V_V comments on The Amanda Knox Test: How an Hour on the Internet Beats a Year in the Courtroom - Less Wrong
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I have heard that the acquittal of Amanda Knox has been overturned. The sources I have found have mentioned the possibility that Knox could be extradited from the US back to Italy and don't rule that out as a possibility. I am hoping someone with an interest in the Knox case (Komponisto) or someone familiar with US laws could tell me whether that is a possibility.
This is relevant to me since simply labeling Italy as a corrupt state that I wouldn't ever visit costs very little (I have no particular reason to visit Italy). However if Knox is (or even could be) extradited from the USA then that is a problem with the legal system of the United States of America, not just of Italy. The USA is a place I may consider returning to so isn't so easily written off. The prospect of extradition means visiting a country carries all the risks of flaws in that country's legal system as well as all flaws in any country with which it has extradition treaties (subject to whatever filtering the details of those treaties entail).
I am also interested in whether the criticism of the wikipedia coverage is accurate. Wikipedia is a source that I frequently rely on for information. Anything which should increase or decrease the amount of trust I place in wikipedia as a source is useful to me.
Isn't that a bit of an overreaction?
I mean, no matter how bad this miscarriage of justice seems to be, the probability of being wrongly convicted of murder while visiting Italy is low, certainly much lower than the probability of being hit by a car.
But being extradited to Italy while visiting the US for a wrong conviction of murder, even if you have never visited Italy before? Probably less likely than being hit by a meteoroid.
I decline to go to Italy based on this and the other research it prompted. The nature of a power structure I am exposing myself to has significance to me even when I am relatively confident in my ability to keep myself self safe. For the same reason I would be unlikely to make a tourist visit a counter-factual USA which still kept all black people enslaved. I'm white so am unlikely to be enslaved but I would still hold what I see in contempt.
The information gained about the culture of Italy by the acceptance of ongoing public corruption is not limited to making predictions specific to whether I personally will be falsely convicted of murder.
So you are not going to visit Italy, and possibly the US, as a form of political protest?
That is not what I said. (I am departing this conversation.)