Programmed Sentencing in China

An anonymous reader writes to mention a unique combination of coding and social justice. A court in China has been using software to mete out sentences in criminal cases. The program has been in use for almost two years, and has passed judgement in some 1,500 cases. From the article: "'The software can avoid abuse of discretionary power of judges as a result of corruption or insufficient training,' the paper quoted Zichuan District Court chief judge, Wang Hongmei, as saying. But some Chinese newspapers criticized the move as a farce that highlighted the 'laziness of the court' and that would not curb judicial corruption as touted."

Comments

Yet another reason...

[Medievalist]

I won't be moving to China any time soon.

Re:Sounds Insane:

[Reality Master 101]

Your post neatly summarizes (one of) the problems I have with Libertarians. You have absolutely ZERO sense of proportion. Everything is black or white. Either someone is innocent, or they're the worst criminal in the history of mankind. There is no middle ground.

Everyone who is old enough to read this post has broken many laws in their life, even if they were minor laws.

So what? Do you think the penalty for any minor law is death? Of course everyone breaks the law (i.e., speeding), and everyone tends to be guilty at one time or another. But guess what? I break very few other laws.

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.

And ah yes, the classic "oversimplifier" herself. This is such a stupid quote. The primary power the government has is TAXES not criminal crackdowns. Guess what? CRIMINALS CAN'T VOTE. They don't earn money. Criminals are useless to politicians! They want MONEY and POWER. Some want it for good, some for not-so-good, but MONEY is power, not a nation of criminals!