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

Forever Loop?

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Would that be the same as a life sentence?

Re:Forever Loop?

[Anonymous Coward]

In communist China, the computer hangs you!

Moo

[Chacham]

while (thereAreCases()) {
  defendant = defendant.getNext();
  defendant.innocent = (defendant.powerful || defendant.powerful);
  if (!defendant.innocent) firingSquad.add(defendant);
  else firingSquad.add(prosecutor);
}

No Whammies!!!!

[dave562]

I just had this visual of this poor Chinese guy surrounded by a bunch of blinking screens, his hand hovering over a big red button, praying, "No whammies, no whammies!!"

now thats what I call

[ptr2004]

a KILLER APP

The MS version

[apillowofclouds]

"It looks like you're trying to sentence someone. Would you like some help?"

Not perfect, but a step in the right direction

[MalleusEBHC]

It would be good to come up with (and make public) an algorithm for determining a sentence. It shouldn't automatically be entered as the official sentence, but then a judge would have a good baseline to go off of. If the judge wanted to make a significant increase or decrease to the sentence, they would need to demonstrate the extenuating circumstances. An added bonus is that there would be a quantitative metric for determining how judges are performing.

Of course, the toughest part is creating a fair algorithm. But hey, in theory it has got potential.