[magicalhippo]

Here in Norway we don't have the death penalty. We did however have a guy go around on an island shooting and killing 69 people[1], most of them kids, until the police came and arrested him. He confessed and there was absolutely zero chance it was not him, as there were hundreds of kids on the island who saw him.

He got the same sentence as a guy who's just been found not guilty for sexually assaulting and killing two young girls, after 21 years in jail[2]. The police found blood from one guy, but arrested his friend as well. After the first guy confessed, the police suggested he couldn't possibly have done it alone, and only then did he implicate his friend. His friend has always claimed innocence, and got the longer sentence due to it. There was never any direct evidence of his friends involvement. The friend recently got his case re-tried and found not guilty.

If the death penalty is on the table, I think it's pretty clear which of these two cases it should apply to, and which it should not.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baneheia_murders

[fakedang]

I was just going through the second article. Wow, it looks like a man's entire life was overturned because of some specially corrupt persons in the police and forensics who decided to keep hiding evidence - but for what purpose?

Specifically one Bente Mevåg and one overenthusiastic but untrained interrogator.

> When Tore H. Pettersen in his closing statement argued that the DNA evidence was caused by contamination, members of the jury reportedly leaned backwards in their chairs, smiled, and crossed their arms comfortably.

Hence why we should get rid of flawed jury-driven trials.

[magicalhippo]

> but for what purpose

It was a quite special case. Two young girls, in a very popular hiking area on the outskirts of one of the larger cities here in Norway. Don't think there had been such a case in "modern times" here. As such, there was a massive pressure to find and convict the perpetrators.

And, since there weren't many such cases here in Norway, the police was quite inexperienced in handling them well it seems. Nice that we don't have more of this happening, but sad that it leads to such poor investigation, handling of evidence and interrogations etc.

It feels like a trope saying the police just wanted to convict someone, but I really feel like that was the case here and in other high-profile cases in the same era.

That said, I also do think the public and media had a role. Without the massive public pressure in such cases to find and convict the perpetrators yesterday, perhaps the police had made other choices...