Ask Slashdot: How Can Technology Improve the Judicial System?

An anonymous reader writes One of the cornerstones of any democracy is its judicial system. Fortunately, most of us never have to deal with it. On the other hand, the fact that we so seldom interact with it also means that most of us are not constantly thinking about it. It is possible our judicial system would be much better if most of us had to spend more time thinking about it. I myself had not put much thought into it until I watched a documentary about Aaron Swartz. It is frightening to think that someone could have been left in a position like that. I also hear about so many cases were people end up pleading guilty because they do not have enough money to fight a case in court. Is this really the best we can do? The Marshal Project is also an interesting source of information regarding the shortfalls of our current system.

What do you think about it? How can we improve our judicial system? Is there any interesting way that technology could be used to improve the system?

Comments

Promis

[handy_vandal]

Promis:

In the mid-1970s, Inslaw developed for the United States Department of Justice a highly efficient, people-tracking, computer program known as Prosecutor's Management Information System (Promis). Inslaw's principal owners, William Anthony Hamilton and his wife, Nancy Burke Hamilton, later sued the United States Government (acting as principal to the Department of Justice) for not complying with the terms of the Promis contract and for refusing to pay for an enhanced version of Promis once delivered. This allegation of software piracy led to three trials in separate federal courts and two congressional hearings.

During ensuing investigations, the Department of Justice was accused of deliberately attempting to drive Inslaw into Chapter 7 liquidation; and of distributing and selling stolen software for covert intelligence operations of foreign governments such as Canada, Israel, Singapore, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan; and of becoming directly involved in murder.

Later developments implied that derivative versions of Enhanced Promis sold on the black market may have become the high-tech tools of worldwide terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and international money launderers and thieves.

Re:It is not about technology

[AK Marc]

All laws should be in a central repository, unique and complete for each jurisdiction. That would be a technical solution to a very real problem. "Ignorance of the law is not a defense" is a lie. The police get to say it. They can arrest you for something legal, then claim ignorance of the law, and their actions are legal.

Since case law is law in the Common Law system, having all the cases indexed and assigned jurisdictionally, that would help the judges and legal professionals make better decisions. Yes, I'm aware that private companies already perform that action for a profit. But I shouldn't be forced to pay profit to a private company just to find the law that applies to me.

The problem with the system is the system. The prosecutor is paid to get convictions. Not to find the truth. A conviction of an innocent person is a win. Finding the guilty person, but being unable to prove it is a loss. For tech to help our system, the system would have to change. Tech is fact-based. Our judicial system is uninterested in fact.

Oh, and plea bargains are torture.

Re:It is not about technology

[AK Marc]

I'm pretty sure all regulations are available on the internet.

Nope. Local building code laws refer to NECA as having force of law, but NECA isn't available online. The law is privately written, privately held, and I must pay money to a company to be able to read the law. NECA isn't making it hard to make the law obfuscated, but is obfuscating the law so DIYers will be scared, and hire a NECA member to do the work. Similar things happen with regulations from the FCC, FAA, IRS and others with force of law, but aren't law. Sure, you can look up most. But it's hard, and "recommendations" are mixed in with "law" in a manner that is hard to differentiate.

it's true the prosecutor gets paid to get convictions. the heart of the justice system is the adversary system.

The state prosecutors are better funded than the state defenders. That, and the adversary system isn't the only system. If we aren't going to do it right, there are other systems that fail more gracefully than ours.