rhollerith_dot_com comments on The Cameron Todd Willingham test - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Kevin 05 May 2010 12:11AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 05 May 2010 10:44:29AM 5 points [-]

There are problems with an adversarial system-- attorneys are rewarded for using weak but plausible arguments for their clients, and as stated above, there are also inequities in the quality of attorneys that different people can afford. Further, attorneys are so expensive that poorer people get an attorney supplied by the court who may not bother to try, or be so ill-paid that they can't afford to put a good case together.

There are also problems with an inquisitorial system. Iterated prisoner's dilemma implies that the investigator may be on the side of the court more than on the side of the accused. In theory, juries are supposed to prevent that, but US practice has been to give juries less and less information and to tell them that they have less and less freedom to use their whole minds.

I assume that a Bayesian court would permit-- possibly even encourage-- jurors to do additional research during the trial.

Some of the problems can be ameliorated by combining the systems-- three voices, speaking for the accused, the defense, and a third that's hopefully a neutral investigator.

Permitting the jurors to ask questions (afaik, a relatively recent addition to US practice and not universal here-- I don't know about other countries) is a significant contribution to getting more minds on the problem of getting all the relevant information and arguments on the table.

Comment author: rhollerith_dot_com 05 May 2010 07:30:58PM *  -1 points [-]

Iterated prisoner's dilemma implies that the investigator may be on the side of the court more than on the side of the accused.

Please call them "prosecutors" since in the U.S., "investigators" are people without law degrees hired by the defense or prosecution to interview potential witnesses, etc.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 05 May 2010 08:11:19PM 0 points [-]

I was using "investigator" to refer to the professionals who are laying out the arguments about the case without being on on either side-- what I was taking an "inquisitorial" system to be. There are obvious reasons for not calling them "inquisitors".

They obviously aren't prosecutors because they aren't specifically attempting to get a conviction. Do you have a recommended term?