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French Police Unsure Which Twin To Charge In Sexual Assaults
An anonymous reader writes "In a real life Prisoner's Dilemma taking place in the French city of Marseille, twin brothers have been arrested for a string of sexual assaults. While say they are sure that one of them committed the crimes (corroborated by a standard DNA test), police were told that it would cost upwards of €1m euros (£850,000, $1.3m USD) to distinguish between them using DNA evidence."
How exactly is the innocent one proclaiming his innocence obstructing justice?
captcha: unproven
While '1 million euros' is a big scary number(and certainly higher than evidence handling for more prosaic cases), it isn't exactly free to have a bunch of cops go around swabbing at evidence, a judge, some lawyers, a jury, etc. Processing a case, especially a serious criminal case, just isn't inexpensive. Given the existing acceptance of the relatively high cost of justice, it seems strange to wring hands about an abnormally high cost cropping up in an abnormal case.
Even if justice didn't demand it, it seems like it would be trivially sensible to just quietly pay what it costs to get the DNA analyzed properly, if only to deter others from trying to get cute.
Wow, logic fail. I hope I never see you in a jury...
It's the brothers that have the dilemma. Let's say both of them were committing these crimes:
If both stay silent, maybe end up with time served 'cause they can't be sure it which of you it was.
If one brother rats the other out (with convincing proof), he goes free while the other gets sentenced for all the crimes.
If both rat the other out, each gets sentenced for his actual share of the crimes.
Perhaps then bill each of them for half the cost, for not cooperating.
Who says the innocent one isn't cooperating?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Yes, there is. There's just an upper bound to how much you can get here.
... and that's why those of us in civilised countries consider the US to have a similar legal system to the brutal Sharia law of countries like Afghanistan, Somalia and Mali, among others.
The justice system shouldn't be haggling over price.
They have suspects they are sure that did it. They have a method of determining which one, but they are dicking around because of cost?
Unacceptable.
When you are wielding life and death IN MY NAME you better get it fucking right. Unjust imprisonment is rape too. Perhaps we should throw some accusations at you and see what sticks, for the greater good, of course.
Good-bye
Of course, only one of them is a rapist. A ball-peen hammer or garden sheers to the knuckles of the innocent twin evokes quite a bit more sympathy....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
What system should replace the USA system of justice that jails more citizens per capita than any other western nation?
Anarchists never rule
But what if the innocent one has no evidence, or no alibi that will stand up to prove his innocence?
Then, you're relying on the guilty one to do the right thing and confess so his brother isn't jailed. He's a rapist, do you really want to rely on his good nature?
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
If only one twin is responsible for the rapes, how do we know that that the other knows he did them? Maybe all one knows is that he didn't do them and, of course, the other twin who is responsible would likely make the same claim falsely.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
That's not justice, that's just about the complete opposite of justice. And it's one aspect of being American that I'm deeply ashamed of. There should be no incentive to plead guilty to a crime you didn't commit. The fact that, not only does it happen, but we actually have a name for it should be deeply concerning to anybody to cares about justice.