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by kia 5469 days ago
This is interesting (from Wikipedia article on Benford's Law):

In the United States, evidence based on Benford's law is legally admissible in criminal cases at the federal, state, and local levels.

1 comments

What does that even mean? Is there some special law that says "Benford's Law is admissible"? I'm guessing not, and that all it means is that it's a piece of evidence that can be used, similarly to any other statistical evidence.

Wouldn't it be stranger (and actually interesting) if that evidence wasn't admissible?

It probably means that the precedent has been established already -- so future courts are likely to just accept it rather than having to go through a re-hearing of Benford from the very beginning.