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Manslaughter Conviction Overturned For Scientists Who Didn't Predict Earthquake

Posted by Soulskill on from the but-their-crystal-ball-has-been-confiscated dept.

Jason Koebler writes: Geologists who didn't warn a town about an impending earthquake are not murderers, an Italian appeals court ruled today. A 2012 decision that rocked the scientific world has been overturned, according to Italy's Repubblica newspapers and confirmed by other Italian outlets. In that decision, six prominent geologists and one government worker were convicted of manslaughter for failing to notify the town of L'Aquila of a 2009 earthquake that killed at least 309 people. The scientists were originally sentenced to six years in prison and were to pay more than $10 million in damages.

3 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid by lesincompetent · · Score: 5, Informative

    Will you ever get it right? Will you ever get the fucking title right?
    They did not fail to predict.
    They said we (yes, i was there at the time) could stay home since the likelihood of a strong earthquake was not heightened by the preceeding MONTHS-long swarm.

    1. Re:SubjectsInCommentsAreStupid by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Informative

      Will you ever get it right? Will you ever get the fucking title right?
        They did not fail to predict.
        They said we (yes, i was there at the time) could stay home since the likelihood of a strong earthquake was not heightened by the preceeding MONTHS-long swarm.

      And the distinction is?

      If there was a well established method for predicting earthquakes that they ignored. Sure, fine then.
      But there's no current way to predict earthquakes that isn't better than a divining rod. So you have to fall back on statistics which say you're probably safer staying home. Thousands of people tracking half way across the country are more likely to get hurt on the road than in an earthquake at home.

  2. Blatantly wrong summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    They weren't accused of "not warning about an earthquake", let alone failing to predict it. They were accused of not taking in adequate consideration earthquake warnings coming from other experts.

    Just avoid reporting a story if you don't even know what you are talking about. And since this story is from Italy, get informed on Italian media about it.