Good Quote

Back from vacation and in my cube. Damn, but I miss Costa Rica. I'll try to put something up about that later and some good pics but I came across a couple of things today. So before the fun stuff a little seriousness.

First, via Sully, Jim Webb:

Let's start with a premise that I don't think a lot of Americans are aware of. We have five percent of the world's population; we have 25 percent of the world's known prison population. There are only two possibilities here: either we have the most evil people on earth living in the United States; or we are doing something dramatically wrong in terms of how we approach the issue of criminal justice.

Also in the criminal justice system I came found this article (maybe also on Sully's site). For two years police in Germany and other parts of Europe have been trying to track down a killer that had left her DNA at 39 or more crime scenes. They even offered up 300,000 Euros as a reward leading to her capture. The problem is that there was no such criminal. The DNA belonged to a factory worker that was making the cotton swabs used to collect DNA evidence.

DNA has been a wonderful addition to the criminal justice system's repertoire. But like all the components of the system it is operated by humans that make mistakes. I read this article and instantly am reminded why I oppose the death penalty. This isn't a case of the wrongly convicted but it's a short step away from it. Meanwhile, 39 crimes go unsolved while the police are on a wild goose chase.