Flutterby™! : Your code can kill

Mork keeps on giving: when the database worms eat into your murder trial. On how the complexity of the "mork" database on the Mozilla codebase led to discredited (after the trial) evidence introduced by the prosecution during the Casey Anthony trial:

He [Jose Baez, lead counsel for the defense] pointed out the discrepancy between the first analysis the sheriff’s office did that showed one visit to a website about chloroform and an analysis done later with a second program that appeared to show 84 visits. However, according to Baez, the first report showed a progression that made it clear that the 84 visits were actually to MySpace.

Speaking of which, I haven't commented on the Casey Anthony trial here because mostly I didn't know what it was until I saw my various social media feeds light up with commentary about the verdict. From what I can tell, if you have problems with the verdict you should get involved with Orange County's Sheriff and District Attorney race, because that appears to have been a tremendous example of investigatorial incompetence and prosecutorial overreach. At least based on the Wikipedia article on the death of Caylee Anthony. Although it could also have been a grand jury pushing the prosecutor's office to overreach.