. They also show how poor lab work (and dishonest, or at least un-rigorous, reporting of observations and results) can be missed and misunderstood if no one knows the right questions to ask.
But the one question that is left open in the Durham chapter--and throughout the book--is how juries are capable of being so easily misled. The passivity of juries, who are chosen, in some respects, for their inadequacy when it comes to evaluating the logic of arguments and for their general lack of knowledge is not surprising. The ability of the prosecutors to dazzle the jury with supposed science is not so unlike their ability to do the same in many other instances. But the gullibility of juries, their commitment to pinning the crime on someone, their tendency to look for vengeance, and their surprising depth of confidence in police, prosecutors, and ju
...