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Dr. John Plunkett died this week. He spent nearly 20 years arguing in court against bad forensic science, for which he was maliciously prosecuted and received false ethics complaints. Through his efforts, 300 innocent people were exonerated. (This sentence from fark.com)
Like a lot of other doctors, child welfare advocates and forensic specialists, John Plunkett at first bought into the theory of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS). It's a convenient diagnosis for prosecutors, in that it provides a cause of death (violent shaking), a culprit (whoever was last with the child before death) and even intent (prosecutors often argue that the violent, extended shaking establishes mens rea.) But in the late 1990s, Plunkett — a forensic pathologist in Minnesota — began to have doubts about the diagnosis. The same year his study was published, Plunkett testified in the trial of Lisa Stickney, a licensed day care worker in Oregon. Thanks in large part to Plunkett's testimony, Stickney was acquitted. District Attorney Michael Dugan responded with something unprecedented — it criminally charged an expert witness over testimony he had given in court. Today, the scientific consensus on SBS has since shifted significantly in Plunkett's direction.
[...] According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 16 SBS convictions have been overturned. Plunkett's obituary puts the figure at 300, and claims that he participated in 50 of those cases. I'm not sure of the source for that figure, and it's the first I've seen of it. But whatever the number, Plunkett deserves credit for being among the first to sound the alarm about wrongful SBS convictions. His study was the first step toward those exonerations.
(Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:29AM (2 children)
Like alt-science, or alt-right science, or alt-sci-right racial science?
Seems like there was an aristarchus submission on this not too long ago . . . .
Ah, here it is! https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=25710 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 12 2018, @12:32AM
The lizard-man never gives up, does he?
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Friday April 13 2018, @12:16PM
That's a really nice submission. You should put it in your journal. It raises many important points about free speech and the importance of being able to challenge opinions freely in public. Which reminds me of something. I have made a few contributions to Hope Not Hate [hopenothate.org.uk] in recent months (since the alt-wrong travesty that is Brexit) particularly in their fight against false claims made by Nigel Farage [hopenothate.org.uk] who was saying nasty things about Brendan Cox [independent.co.uk], widower of murdered MP Jo Cox [soylentnews.org].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].