Seismologists Tried for Manslaughter for Not Predicting Earthquake

[Palmpilot]

If you think the legal system is screwed up in the U.S, look at what the Italians are doing:

Earthquake prediction can be a grave, and faulty science, and in the case of Italian seismologists who are being tried for the manslaughter of the people who died in the 2009 L'Aquila quake, it can have legal consequences.

The group of seven, including six seismologists and a government official, reportedly didn't alert the public ahead of time of the risk of the L'Aquila earthquake, which occurred on April 6 of that year, killing around 300 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

But most scientists would agree it's not their fault they couldn't predict the wrath of Mother Nature...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience...riedformanslaughterfornotpredictingearthquake

 

[Jim Logajan]

I saw that buried in a small article in our local paper.

Good luck on the Italians finding future staffing for their "Great Risks" commission.

I would think that if there was any earlier suggestion or hints by these commission members that they could predict earthquakes, I would assume the appropriate charge would be fraud rather than manslaughter.

If you read other news articles on this, I think you'll find the origin of this nonsense is that there was allegedly one statement made by one of that group that might constitute a negative (rather than neutral) prediction that turned deadly:
An interview with commission member Bernardo De Bernardis, of the national civil protection department, in which he rejects suggestions that the public should worry, is cited in the prosecutor's case.
Asked whether residents should just sit back and relax with a glass of wine, he said, "Absolutely, a Montepulciano doc [a Tuscan red wine]. This seems important."


From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/26/italy-quake-experts-manslaughter-charge
I wonder if anyone will want to seek future funding for research that doesn't yield high probability predictions of earthquakes? In any case, I predict geologists will become mum on the subject.