Examples of Unethical Experimental Studies I am teaching ethics in a statistics class. I am looking for examples when deceptive statistical evidence was caught or attempted to be used. For example, is there an example of a party who had several surveys or studies performed and tried to only publicize the findings that was beneficial to them? I am looking for court case examples. Thank you. Edit I am aware that using misleading statistics can be punished by being fired or publicly disgraced in the scientific community, which is not a legal matter. However, some statistics is actually used for important decisions or claims. I am looking for when bad statistics contributed to a decision that caused damages that led to a criminal or civil case. I am not part of the law community, so I cannot say whether I am looking for fraud, bad faith, or incompetence in any technical sense. But here is an example. Say a company pressured researchers to conclude a product was safe or exceeded its true capability. Then that product caused damage to some party who sued. If evidence came that a biased sample was purposefully used, I think that would show bad faith on that company and have bearing upon the court's decision. Or if a too small sample was taken and the data was presented without confidence intervals, that could show incompetence and the company failed to perform due diligence. Outright falsification of evidence would clearly show unethical practices, but I am looking for more interesting examples in the &quot;grey area.&quot; I did not find any case examples, so I assume there are not many. That is why I asked it here.
Statistics deceive courts all the time Most judges and jurors know no statistics. Most doctors and social scientists use statistics without really understanding them. Therefore, innocently or otherwise, perfectly valid statistics are introduced into courts in ways and manners that result in mistakes even before we consider the possibility of deliberate deception. Perhaps the most egregious example was that of the wrongful conviction of Sally Clark for the murder of her two children who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The conviction led to her spending 3 years in gaol and probably contributed to her premature death of alcohol poisoning in 2007. The case was flawed for two reasons: 1) evidence that clearly pointed to death by natural causes of her second child was withheld from the defence (and, to be fair, from most of the prosecution team) and 2) misuse of statistics. The expert evidence of paediatrician Dr Roy Meadow was flawed in these ways: "He claimed that, for an affluent non-smoking family like the Clarks, the probability of a single cot death was 1 in 8,543, so the probability of two in the same family was around "1 in 73 million" (8543 × 8543). Given that there are around 700,000 live births in Britain each year, Meadow argued that a double cot death would be expected to occur once every hundred years." As any undergraduate statistician (or advanced high-school mathematician) could articulate this is total bollocks. Combining probabilities by multiplying them together is only applicable if the events are independent - there is no evidence that the deaths of 2 young children with the same parents living in the same house at roughly the same time are uncorrelated and plenty of reasons for suspecting that they are highly correlated and probably in non-linear ways. Indeed, subsequent studies have shown that the risk of a second SIDS death in the same family increases by a factor of 5 to 10 - this is a very high correlation on what is still a very rare event. It is ironic and tragic that the argument that led to the charges (that the deaths are correlated by a single murderer) relies on the exact opposite (and equally vacuous) argument that led to the conviction (that SIDS deaths within a family are uncorrelated). Further to the statement, the rate of SIDS in the UK is 1 in 1,300; not 1 in 8,500. Dr Medlow factored in the non-smoking and socio-economic elements of the household that lowered the chances but failed to factor in those that increased the chances: like the fact that both children were boys who have a higher rate of SIDS than girls. Further, it's likely the court committed the Prosecutor's fallacy. Specifically, the court failed to understand the difference between conditional and unconditional probability. Double SIDS deaths are rare. But so are double infanticides. Even if Dr Medlow's figure of 1 in 73 million for double SIDS is accurate, it says nothing about the chances of double homicide (let alone double homicide by whom). We are not interested in the likelihood of 2 deaths by SIDS or homicide in the general population - we are interested in the chance of SIDS OR homicide OR something else (noting the second child likely died of a bacterial infection - so neither SIDS nor murder played a role) given that 2 deaths have occurred. For that, we need to turn to the good work of Reverand Bayes: Further examples can be found here.
Offering up evidence that another person committed a crime is a standard and accepted, although rare, criminal defense strategy. It is mostly not used very much because most crimes for which defendants are charged were not committed by somebody else, and because most innocent defendants lack the investigative and economic resources to identify enough information about another potential suspect to present such a case credibly. The defense would have to articulate to the judge that the reason for offering up evidence about Z is to support Y's theory of the case that Z and not Y committed the crime, in order to overcome a relevance objection. But, the defendant had wide latitude to do so in order to create a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the crime. In most circumstances, it would be a reversible abuse of discretion to prevent the defendant from introducing evidence to support a theory of this kind. A similar strategy, for example, was recently used in a preliminary hearing in a case involving a high profile murder in Colorado where a man stands accused to murdering his wife (the man is Barry Morphew) has developed a theory that his wife was murdered by someone else based in part, for example, on the evidence of unidentified DNA near the murder scene allegedly associated with previous crimes in DNA databases.
It's hard to say, given how little we know about the case and the information, also what you mean by &quot;corrupted&quot; and what your evidence is. Here are two hypothetical cases that illustrate different possibilities. 1: The accused instructs the lawyer to tell the judge &quot;My client has an alibi against the robbery charge: at the time, he was murdering his brother&quot;. Lawyer deems this to be a bad argument because murder is punished more severely than robbery. The lawyer is doing his job, protecting the interest of the client. No crime or civil wrong. 2: The accused instructs the lawyer to tell the judge &quot;My client has an alibi against the robbery charge: at the time, he was in church&quot;. The lawyer doesn't understand that this is exculpatory evidence, thinking &quot;they never asked about church, there's no point in me raising this issue&quot;. The client can probably sue for incompetence. There are possible criminal charges possible, for example if the lawyer is working for The Mob he might be involved in an actual criminal conspiracy.
I have not found a case directly on point, but there is a case in the right neighborhood. In Flordia v. Carter 364 So. 2d 1249, Carter was charged with perjury for making a false statement under oath. He recanted his testimony in a letter to the defense attorney the next day. Subsequently he was charged with perjury: the trial judge dismissed the case based on his having recanted (which is a defense to perjury). The judge said (quoted in the appeal below and citing a relevant precedent Brannen v. Florida 114 So. 429) It matters not whether Carter knew his original testimony was false or whether he was merely mistaken. "The law encourages the correction of erroneous and even intentionally false statements on the part of a witness, and perjury will not be predicated upon such statements when the witness, before the submission of the case, fully corrects his testimony." The lower appeals court rejected the trial court's dismissal, saying Recantation is a defense to an allegation of perjury only where there is an acknowledgement of the falsity of the original sworn statement, a voluntary retraction of that statement, and a new statement which discloses the true facts. It is not a viable defense where the perjured testimony has substantially affected the proceeding or it has become manifest that such falsity has been or will be exposed. Otherwise, one could rest on his lie, allowing it to substantially affect a proceeding, and never retract unless the falsity had been exposed. This would provide no inducement or encouragement to tell the truth. That court basically felt it was based on the threat of being discovered, and felt that a particular state statute had taken away the recantation defense, so they reinstated the charge. The appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, Carter v. Florida 384 So. 2d 1255 basically declared that the appeals court was wrong about the statute (they officially held that recantation is a defense to perjury). They concluded that Carter gained nothing by recanting (that was a distinguishing feature in a precedent that the lower court favored). The dissent in this decision opined that It may be that the false deposition testimony by Dr. Carter was inadvertent and without criminal intent.... These, however, are factual issues and should be resolved by a jury rather than by the trial court on a motion to dismiss. What unifies all opinions on the matter is that a false statement made under oath must be recanted. The reason why Carter was not convicted was that he (possibly) was unaware that his testimony was false and he did recant when he became aware of the facts.
If no one objects to a leading question, then the judge does nothing. A judge does not generally pro-actively police the rules of evidence at trial. Also, there are circumstances when a judge has discretion to allow a leading question even when it wouldn't ordinarily be allowed to move the trial along on largely undisputed points or to allow in inarticulate witness to testify. The exception to judicial passivity in the absence of an objection at trial is "plain error" that is not "harmless error", which a judge has a duty to prevent or address even if no objection is raised by a party. But, offering a leading question when one is not allowed by the rules of evidence almost never constitutes plain error, and would almost always be considered "harmless error" even if it was objected to and the judge ruled incorrectly, unless the use of improper leading questions was pervasive and there was a contemporaneous objection by counsel. For example, allowing a prospective juror to serve as a juror, despite that juror saying in the jury selection process that he can't be impartial because the defendant committed adultery with his spouse, because neither the prosecution or the defense attorney moves to strike the juror for cause, rather than striking that juror for cause of the court's own accord, is the kind of conduct that would often be considered "plain error" that is not "harmless error."
If somehow the lawyer knows that evidence provided by their client to the court is false, the lawyer has an obligation to direct the client to cease the perjury and to persuade the client to disclose to the court that the evidence was false. If the client does not stop, the lawyer must withdraw. There are tactful ways to express the reason for withdrawal to the court without prejudicing the client. Ethics opinions and guidance are available online from various bar associations explaining how to handle this situation, as well as academic scholarship on the topic: https://www.alabar.org/office-of-general-counsel/formal-opinions/2009-01/ https://www.lawsociety.ab.ca/resource-centre/key-resources/client-relationship-management/untying-the-knot/ https://firearmslaw.ca/2013/10/25/right-to-know-the-ethical-dilemma-of-a-lying-client/ https://www.ncbar.gov/for-lawyers/ethics/ethics-articles/dealing-with-client-perjury/ https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/sclr/vol42/iss4/10/ Every bar association should be able to provide advice to a lawyer faced with this situation that is tailored to the specific circumstances and the local rules.
There are all manner of reasons that evidence can be excluded at a trial, most of which are set forth in rules of evidence. If the evidence was not admitted on the grounds of relevance and the charge was speeding, I presume that the reason that it was found not be to relevant was that it was not possible from a video to determine how fast someone was driving and there was no dispute in the case over who was driving. If the defendant could have articulated some reason that the video was relevant to those points, perhaps it could have been admitted. But, as if often the case, pro se defendants are usually not articulate enough to set forth a legally relevant reason that evidence should be admitted. Unless the defendant could show that the video showed something allowing a jury to determine whether or not the law was violated, it probably wouldn't be relevant and I can't easily imagine how it would be relevant, but perhaps there was some special facts or circumstances that might show, for example, that the speed gun was actually picking up another vehicle.
17 U.S. Code § 107, which governs fair use in the US, says (emphasis mine): Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include— (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. Note that commercial/educational use is part of only one factor. Even if that factor is in your favor, it may not be fair use, and even if it isn't in your favor, it might be fair use. Because fair use is determined on a case-by-case basis, we can't really say whether your use is fair use, with or without the donations. That would be the sort of thing you'd ask a lawyer about to get real legal advice on your particular case.