LucifarGundam @lucifargundam@social.cleverlibre.org

#memeirl

@freemo I believe Cosby is in the wrong, but the reason he was freed is actually more nuanced, and was caused by a prosecutorial error and a lack of judicial oversight years ago.

The DA, during Cosby's initial testimony, offered him criminal immunity in exchange for a "forced" testimony during the simultaneous civil proceeding (i.e. he wouldn't be charged criminally but was forced to testify in the lawsuit that was going on at the time).

This deal was made by the prosecutor as he wasn't confident in the burden of proof being held up in criminal court but thought he could get justice for the plaintiff in civil proceedings instead (in criminal cases, the burden of proof is "beyond a reasonable doubt", whereas in civil cases, it's "the preponderance of evidence"). Ultimately this deal led to a settlement of (I think) $3.4 million dollars for the victim during the initial cases, but in exchange for criminal immunity. While not perfect, it's certainly better than nothing for the plaintiff if a jury decided there wasn't enough evidence to convict, which was especially likely if he didn't testify by exercising his 5th amendment rights.

The new case that was opened leveraged transcripts of his initial confession, which he as promised by the initial DA would never be used to prosecute him. Thus, they violated his 5th amendment right against self-incrimination to obtain the evidence, and he was let go. This was all determined completely irrespective of whether or not he was actually guilty, but due to this error the Supreme Court determined his rights were violated so badly that he couldn't be tried again (in a 5-4 or 6-3 decision). The dissent was only caused by the decision of upholding double Jeopardy in this case, not whether his rights were violated.

While I think he should have been put away, this was ultimately a compromise by the initial DA, and a further mistake by current prosecutors to leverage evidence that was "fruit from the poisonous tree".

P.S. IDC about weed, people should be able to do what they want as long as they don't hurt other people.

This is my (third) Mastodon account I've created. I made this one so I could write longer posts. My main account is @vital876@mastodon.social.

qoto.org's theme looks awesome. I feel like I'm on a spaceship of some kind. The character limit is 65,532? That's crazy high!

@strawberryfieldsforever I made the account! Oh my goodness. That character limit is nice to see! 🎉💃

meowma mia!

"Look at what they need to do"

submitted by heckutoru

I tend to hear #climatechange/global warming framed in terms of rising *average* global temperatures, but it seems like the numbers don't affect most people. Talking about single digit changes in degrees Celsius doesn't viscerally effect people who think in Fahrenheit and easily tolerate a few degrees up or down in their personal environment. I suspect the data about the tails of the temperature distribution may be more compelling. When every summer is the "hottest on record", that has to strike a chord.
#sciencecommunication #statistics

“Don’t do this at home unless you know what you’re doing.”

"Microsoft at it's best"

submitted by devilyoushy

Just found Ukrainian "Vaccine" alcohol in the shop