Lazy linking

I used to do a lot of lazy linking posts, which are posts linking to things I find interesting. The main reason for the decline in these posts, is that I now link to such things from my Twitter account. Still, I'll try to make these posts from time to time, if nothing else then to give some linklove to other people.

First of, a fairly old blogpost about old atomic models in the past: The gallery of failed atomic models, 1903-1913

From the mainstream media, BBC reports on the findings of an rather interesting meteorite: Attic stored meteorite 'four billion years old'

Ed Brayton reports that the Innocence Project Frees 250th Innocent Person

And then there is the news that quack Kevin Trudeau has been hold in content of the court, because he asked his followers to write the judge, resulting in an email deluge.

On the anthropogenic global warming front, Climate Progress reports that Penn State inquiry finds no evidence for allegations against Michael Mann.

Via Sheril Kirshenbaum, I became aware of the Under the Microscope website, dedicated to women in science.

Over at Majikthise, Lindsay Beyerstein takes on the claims that the fathers of modern obstetrics murder more women than Jack the Ripper. Personally I find Lindsay's speculations more convincing than the new claims.

Over at Alternet, Greta Christina writes about Why We Don't Need Religion to Give Life Mystery (also at her own blog)

Bad science and the death row

I know that this article is nine days old, but I thought it worth blogging about nevertheless.

Two Texans sent to death row by bad science

Two Texans convicted of committing murder by setting fires were convicted because of faulty investigations. This conclusion was reached by a study conducted by the Texas Forensic Science Commission. They retained Dr. Craig L. Beyler of Maryland to conduct the study, and reported their findings on August 25. The results corroborated those of another study conducted in 2006, by the Innocence Project.

In 1987, Ernest Willis was convicted of setting a fire which killed two women, and sent to death row. In 2004, a new district attorney suspected problems with the original investigation and ordered a new one, which resulted in Willis being freed.

In 1992, Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of setting a fire which killed his 2 year old daughter and 1 year twins. He was executed in 2004. Willingham's prosecutor, John Henry Jackson, admits that some bad science was used in his case, but believes he was guilty, because of his jail house confession and because his feet weren't burned.

I am against the death penalty because I have the fundamental stance that it's not the role of society to kill, except in self-defense (and I don't believe that murdering someone who is locked away can in any way be considered self-defense). Even if I didn't have this viewpoint, I'd still be against the death penalty for the reason demonstrated here.

I don't know if Willingham was guilty or not, but at least part of the evidence used to convict him was based on bad science. This means that he didn't have due process when found guilty. Unlike Willis he won't have a chance to be freed though, as he has already been murdered by the State of Texas. It can be debated whether locking people up for years can be undone, but at least something can be done to undo the injustice - the same cannot be said about someone executed.

Hopefully this story will lead the State of Texas (the US state with the most executions, currently run by the governor with the most executions under his watch) to re-consider the death penalty, or at the very least, to go through the evidence used to convict people currently sitting on death row (or even better, commission the Innocence Project to do so).

Edit: The New Yorker also has an article on this story: Trial by Fire