Amazing. 

Sorry, no, the story is wrong.  Our judges are crazy but not THAT crazy. 

It's not about "not predicting", it's about "miscommunicating". They "reassured" the people that there was no "particular reason" to expect a major earthquake; people interpreted that as "it's safe to go home", and they did go home, even to the ones that were unsafe (for no fault of the scientists)

Of course *I don't think* they should have been found guilty, but it's true that the announcement *could* have been worded a bit differently. Regular people don't have the technical background to understand the finer points of such arguments.

As I stated, I agree that both are based on miscommunication.

However, that should not amount to manslaughter.

Those error filled witches should be burned. 

Some of our malpractice plaintiff attorneys must be working with the Italian government now.  Their biz has been a bit slower here of late.

This would have to be one of the worst travesties of justice in the history of mankind and those who arrived at a guilty [of manslaughter] verdict should be imprisoned for perverting the course of justice.

In fact, I can see no justice in the guilty verdict.

Every geologist I know, and i know a few as I have an aspiring interest myself (but don't pretend to be anything beyond a novice fan), would have said the same thing -- as rare as earthquakes are, it is extremely rare for a small earthquake to be a precursor to a larger one, to the point no geologist I know would consider it a sufficient risk to ever say anything even vaguely like "there may be a larger earthquake to follow."  If asked "could this earthquake have been a foreshock?" I know that "no particular reason" would be a very apt and accurate descriptor.

This decision is like something out of the dark ages.

I thought Italians were an intelligent people. Evidently not if they sentence this person. STUPID!

True, but they were not random scientists, they were part of a specific crisis committee meant to handle "the mob".

When you look at the Italian wording of their announcement, they effectively told people (who were leaving their homes out of fear) to go back inside. The fact is that many of those houses weren't even fit to stand a mild earthquake. Given their role, they maybe could have factored that too in their advising.

I'm not saying the sentence is just: it's wrong, VERY wrong for a lot of reason. But it's not as "medieval" as it sounds if you read the reports without knowing the context.

Mastroego,

I disagree with your depiction of the facts, because the central concept behind the charge of manslaughter as I understand it is that either through your actions or through criminal negligence you caused the death of a person without intending to do so.  Since the scientists neither caused the earthquake, nor were capable of being criminally negligent in failing to predict another quake due to that fact that all geologists agree it is impossible to do so, they can not be guilty of manslaughter.

This very much is ignorant and a gross miscarriage of justice and makes Italian jurisprudence look extremely foolish and backwards.

No, minor earthquakes happen all the time.

This is like someone saying people have accidents, so we need to stop driving cars.  If someone rational comes out and says it's absurd to stop driving just because there's an extremely rare chance you'll have an accident tomorrow, they haven't mislead you.

No reasonable, thinking individual, would assume one will have a damaging quake just because there was a minor one.  People along the Ring of Fire would live in constant terror, they happen all the time.

Your judicial system is batshit insane.  This couldn't have gotten to a grand jury in the US, let alone a trial.  That you went all the way to a conviction is plain fucking nuts...  Everyone is fucked up a wee bit, but Italy makes most of western civilization look damn good.

Knew it...Exactly why I never became a scientist.

My fore sight never ceases to amaze me.

Yeah, no.

There is no context (in any *rational* world) where the natural reticence of a scientist constitutes any fault at all, let alone manslaughter.

It *is* medieval. This is nothing more than a case of morons wanting absolute certainty where such certainty cannot possibly exist.

Italy has more than enough to deal with on a governmental and budgetary level, they don't need to be making themselves the laughingstock of the rest of the rational world.

By sacrificing their scientists to the crucible of political stupidity, they've all but guaranteed that they'll suffer all the more when the scientists either leave Italy entirely, or simply refuse to make any statement whatsoever.

Forget the idea of shooting oneself in the foot, Italy shot itself in the brain. Good luck with that.

I also believe that the scientists themselves when having viewed the official's statement should have added that no earthquake can be predicted with any accuracy and emphasized safety precautions. At most, and in hindsight, there might have been some negligence in not expanding on the official's statement... but certainly not manslaughter. That is ludicrous.