Scientific American Predicts Who Will Be
Executed
A report in Scientific American, 2008 September,
page 18, "Who Will Die?", by Larry
Greenemeier:
"Researchers have built a computer
system that can predict which death-row inmates
are most likely to be executed.
"It consists
of 18 computer processors that analyzed data
on about 1,000 death-row prisoners, including
their sex, age, race, schooling and whether
they were ultimately executed or spared.
"Then the researchers fed it similar information
about 300 more prisoners, leaving out whether
they had lived or died.
"The system, using
logic it had developed from the first set
of data, correctly predicted the outcome
for 92 percent of those cases.
"It found that
death-row inmates with the highest chance
of being executed are those with the lowest
levels of education; neither the severity
of the crime nor race could reliably predict
a prisoner's fate."
