Sampling issues in the administration of justice |
| |
| Authors: | Colin Aitken |
| |
| Institution: | Colin Aitken is Professor of Forensic Statistics at the University of Edinburgh. He has a long-standing research interest in the interface of statistics, law and forensic science and is the principal of two authors of Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence for Forensic Scientists.;He is Chairman of the Joseph Bell Centre of Forensic Statistics and Legal Reasoning, Chief Editor of the journal Law, Probability and Risk and has been Chairman or member of the Scientific Programme Committee of the International Conference on Forensic Statistics since its inception in 1990. |
| |
| Abstract: | Colin Aitken first became interested in sampling in the context of the administration of justice when the case of US versus Shonubi was brought to his attention. Shonubi was a Nigerian working in New York. He was arrested at Kennedy Airport when seen behaving in a suspicious manner in the baggage hall, having returned on a flight from Nigeria. He was found to have 103 bags of a white substance inside him, four of which were examined. The white substance was identified as heroin. Shonubi was arrested, tried and found guilty of drug smuggling. The question then arose as to the length of sentence he should be given. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
