Billy the Kid Faces The Law... Again

Jason Raddin writes "MSNBC.com has an interesting story about a new showdown in the Old West. It seems as if Billy the Kid can still cause problems for the law-men of New Mexico, even as he rests in his grave. Several small New Mexico towns claim to possess the "true" grave of Billy the Kid (a.k.a. William H. Bonney, Henry McCarty, Kid Antrim). Two sheriffs in Capitan, New Mexico have proposed that this mystery be solved using modern DNA testing. The proposal was made in June to exhume the remains of Bonney's mother and the two reported graves of Bonney. This has spurred a hot legal debate raising an interesting question: which is more important, tourist dollars or the truth?"

Comments

What about...

[Stile 65]

...the rights of the dead buried people that they're digging up?

Who owns those plots of land? Do dead bodies automatically become the property of the state?

What about RIP?

[Karadryel]

This has spurred a hot legal debate raising an interesting question: which is more important, tourist dollars or the truth?

Whatever happened to the whole "rest in peace" notion? Let me get this in writing right now: if someone comes diggin' me up in a century or so, I am *so* gonna haunt that guy!

Re:okay. sure.... so where do computers come in?

[c0dedude]

News For Nerds, Stuff that matters. That's the test. A new technology comes in that lets you determine identity accuratly, 100%. A man has died and been buried for around 100 years. The question here is: "Should technology be used retroactivly?"

Consider the following example. A person is murdered. A murder-machine is invented 100 years after the person is killed that tells who killed a person even 100 years after the person died. Is it ethical to put the families of the suspects (all the suspects are long dead) through the trauma of knowing that their grandfather was a murderer?

Geekdom is occasionally concerned with science fiction, and science fiction creates worlds with rules designed such that the author can play with an idea. Here, the rules change such that a person can determine identity 100%. This change makes this News for Nerds, and I'd certanly say that the issue of retroactive technology, which can include DNA Testing, Mitochondrial DNA, and Cryogenics, matters.