Re: "Scientific Evidence"

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 12:57 31.07.2000 -0500, you wrote:
>	The defense attorney has the responsibility of thoroughly educating the
>court as well as the responsibility of providing jury instructions so
>that technical issues such as 'substantial factor' are clearly
>understood.  If the court then chooses to ignore that education or
>chooses to reject those jury instructions, the defense has a legitimate
>issue then to take the matter up on appeal.


RADSAFErs,

Why is it so difficult to understand, that "law" has nothing to do with
"justice"? "Law" has among others to do with procedural rules which have to
be followed or are interpreted arbitrarily and successfully by lawyers,
attorneys, judges and are in court much more important than any "scientific
evidence". There are no strict rules in court like in science, not even
when there is a probability of less than 0.0000001 percent, the phrase "it
cannot be excluded" overrules in the opinion of a judge, who has "made up
his mind" and refuses to be "confused with facts" any common sense. And it
is very easy for the next case's judge to use the decision in the foregoing
case to make the same decision again, so this kind of distorted "justice"
is automatically propagated. Is there anybody out there, who really
believes that judges are totally neutral people? They are influenced by
"mainstreams" and preceding decisions. 

At least in Austrian juridication an experts testimony explicitely does not
necessarily bind the judge to decide according to his findings.

We should not be blind to the fact that the real decisions are made outside
of our scientific and expert world. This does not only apply to radiation
effects, but I think almost everybody knows about court decisions which are
neglecting any common sense, distort the law and makes the innocents guilty
and the guilties innocent from his private life. Do not expect it to be
otherwise when it concerns scientific evidence!

Franz

 
Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


Office:
Ministerialrat Dr. Franz Schoenhofer
Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management
Radiation Protection Department (BMLFUW I/8 U)
Radetzkystr. 2
A-1031 Vienna
AUSTRIA

phone: -43-1-71172-4458
fax: -43-1-7122331

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