Serious Note
As a law student you come across some unusual criminal law cases, but one always stuck in my mind, Benjamin Geen. He was a nurse from Horton General Hospital convicted of trying to kill 17 of his pateints in the fallout from Harold Shipman's murders.

He was convicted on a statistical analysis of unexplained respitory arrests at his hospital.

What wasn't known by anyone (at least I hope it wasn't known by anyone) at the time of his trial was that the 'adverse pattern' which was used to show that the only explanation was Geen's involvment, was parralled in other comparably sized hospitals.

The spike in respitory arrests is actually a nationwide trend towards respitory arrests during the same six month period. In point of fact, other hospitals had more of these incidents than Horton General during the same period.

I genuinely don't think the crimes he's been convicted of actually took place.


He is currently applying to the CCRC.
you can read about his case here:
www.freebengeen.org/
( WormuIus, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:05, 7 replies)

wow
everyone should know about this as well:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutor's_fallacy
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:17, closed)

It really does bother me sometimes
Imagine if 4 people won the euromillions jackpot and then one of them tried to claim the others had copied their numbers or cheated in some way becuase the odds of 4 people winning were so low that the only explanation could be that the others had cheated.

They'd be laughed out of court, yet this is actually a more sensible conclusion than the one drawn by the prosecutors investigating Geen's case.
( WormuIus, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:22, closed)

You'd think the lessons would have been learnt about relying on adverse pattern statistical evidence in the Sally Clark case
yet here we are.

See also: Colin Norris, very similar case to Geen.
( WormuIus, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:24, closed)

And this is why everybody in the legal system should be subject to random maths tests with a penalty of DEATH for scoring below 85%.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 15:37, closed)

What would happen if you really DID copy someone else's lottery numbers and they won?
Is there a law against that?
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:31, closed)

Not in a lottery where getting the numbers is guesswork, no
but if you copied someone's answers for a prize crossword that could support a charge of Fraud.
( WormuIus, Fri 2 Dec 2011, 13:43, closed)

I don't think you could secure a conviction
if the only evidence presented was "a lot of people have died in the vicinity of the accused."

I'd hope not, anyway.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Tue 6 Dec 2011, 14:14, closed)