Justice-for-All? Amy Price PhD

Illusory statements and human error can set context that overthrows justice. In my life I have seen the guilty walk and the innocent executed based on what passes for science. Probability and statistics are used as weapons promoting authority over individuals unlearned in the field with little regard for the human carnage and heartbreak that follows.
Want to see the power of optical illusions? They are not as powerful as those that can be created by illusory context. Illusions are the gap between perception and processing, they operate in all senses and we are all susceptible
I recently enjoyed a forensics experiment where we were given a cursory fingerprinting class and then were given prints to compare for accuracy. There is a commonly held 16 points of accuracy that until recently was used to determine probability...plenty of room for error, even though Sir Francis Galton says mathematically the chances of identical fingerprints are 60 billion +.
I was interested in the case of a Scottish police officer who because of mistaken identity, lost her job, reputation and was driven to near bankruptcy because her accusers needed to be right more that they cared about justice. The officer later settled for 1.75 million pounds without the agency admitting guilt. I shudder to think how little she would have recovered for personal use after all the 3 ds (denial,delay and) were exercised. In fact those that brought faulty evidence were later exonerated by the department. Of course a 273 page document explaining how to do it better was produced but I doubt the officer gets royalties...
Dr Itiel Dror shared in an interview with the BBC how he engaged forensic specialists in a study where he linked context with perception during fingerprint analysis. There was a large error rate. The video and study is worth viewing. He shows how the stage can be set for seasoned professionals to make errors
In another case a Lawyer was held in Oregon as a terror suspect, his life was derailed and finally with the words "regrettably there was an error" he was released. I doubt that fixed much for him or bought him back time that was stolen in the prime of his life. He will likely be remembered as the 'Terror Suspect" rather than for other contributions he makes.
In the experiment most of us correctly identified these prints as not matching his. What went wrong? Try it for yourself

What is the take home message? Before you render judgement or accusation really listen with a mind to hear. Your 'facts' may be clouded by context and false perception. At any rate we can choose a blame free course where together we fix the things that are broken and produce unity instead of destruction