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Comment by dkarl | Hacker News Reader

Similar problems have been reported in Tennessee and also in Indiana - where prosecutors have had a perhaps more troubling issue of inmates being mistakenly released early.

It seems backwards to describe this as more troubling.

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Relevant citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_formulation

Better sorry than safe?

Where have we gone where this cornerstone of legal philosophy [1] is in question?

"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone's_formulation

Keep in mind this is a UK site. People are guilty until proven innocent, so from that perspective guilty people going free may indeed seem more troubling.

The UK is "Innocent until proven Guilty" except for specific exemptions (mostly related to not handing over encryption passwords, which is an offence itself..a lovely little logical trap they snuck in on that one didn't they).

Not at all. Do you want a rapist getting out of jail earlier? That would be troubling.

Not as troubling as a government depriving a citizen of their inalienable rights. That is by far the more troubling outcome - especially given the greater societal implications.

But a person with a traffic ticket getting jailed and registered as a sex offender is better? Both are equally troubling. In my mind, the latter moreso.

Hm - I take your point. I was coming at it from a public safety point of view first and foremost. But I can see the other side, sure.

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