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Yes, that is it. They weren't sure enough in the criminal case, but they thought he probably did it in the civil case.

My comments were more about the statistics suggesting someone is guilty of something. So I threw the racial difference in crime rates in there, to illustrate a point. I think the difference between civil court and criminal court is you have to be sure in the criminal court, but just the balance...

Six times as many blacks are convicted for violent crimes than their white counterparts. But I still think we should convict them base on the evidence, rather than the colour of their skin.

People jump to conclusions. The police could have done the same, tainted by institutionalised racism. In fact, one of the cops was caught on tape about the planting of evidence. Why even bother check for other suspects if you can nail this person down? It gets their conviction figures up. You...

It is rather costly to look after the inmates. Either way, there seems to be a cost to society.

How about a sixth? The opportunity cost of the money spent looking after the prisoner verses it spent on something else.

There is plenty of good info out there. The Reddit Futurism channel has lots of stuff about this.

Domestic abuse does not equal murder. If cops may have lied, their testimony is less credible. You can't convict on shaky testimony. The point I am making is my flip from "he did it because he didn't ask how she died", to "maybe he didn't do it because that may not be what actually happened". If...

Uncle, it never interested me either until I saw that series on Netflix. Then I got fascinated by it. And it appears that everybody has their own opinion on it!

Maybe it is a case of the fish rots from the head down. Orders come from above...and they are from authority so you gotta obey them right? Administer those shocks. They have a white lab coat on! [For those who know about the authority experiments, you will know what I am talking about.]

To be honest Doc, I am just stress-testing the ideas here. I say lock 'em up! So I throw in a counter-viewpoint, even if I actually agree with your position in the first place! By putting the ideas under stress and making them pop, you can check out how bomb-proof they are. For example, I...

I better write that down because I don't get a visual cue! (I do actually, just being silly). But you do lose your confidence in being able to identify what colour is what. You think you know but you tend to keep your mouth shut in fear of getting it wrong.

Yes, you are right. In zero-sum games, you cannot enlarge or shrink the pie. In the case of the nukes, I see the tit for tat approach preserving the status quo. This is from my perspective a win-win - it's mere threat keeps the peace. However, it depends on the viewpoint of the aggressor. If...

Is there data to support that view? I am always shocked when I hear about boot-camp participants leave after a few weeks, instead preferring to go back to prison for an extra year or so to avoid the heavy going conditioning they are subjected to. It must be too cushy in prison!

If these "enhanced interrogation" (oh how we like to dress up words!) techniques don't work, why are they using them? Surely they know the data more than us lay people do. Let us assume they get low quality data. Maybe some of the data can help. e.g. you torture 10 people and get 1 piece of data...

In these cases, who really pulled the trigger? Was it the person holding the gun, or was it the person who brought them up in such a manner that they went down the wrong path? If you wire someone's mind for criminality, they have essentially become damaged. But they did not damage themselves...

I propose harsh bootcamps that rewire character. Many of these people have been brought up with terrible role models through no fault of their own. Their criminal future can almost be predicted at birth, yet you cannot blame theme for being born in the wrong postcode when they have no say over...

I would like the opportunity of a day off, playing games on my PlayStation without worry about how to put food on my table. So while you lose civil liberties going to prison, you can gain other advantages. Working all day to earn a crust while the prisoner is fed, watered and given recreation...

Doc, I presume by your argument above that you believe prisoners should not have the right to vote. They played outside the game. What about the right to food and water? Or human treatment? How about Guantanamo Bay? If some of the inmates were guilty, is waterboarding therefore justified? [Said...

Interesting concept to bring in zero-sum game, although I don't altogether agree. You don't need to have exact balance of threat for the tit for tat approach to work. Just look at American soldiers going to war in Vietnam. As the body count rises, public opinion turns against the politicians and...