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Comment by microcolonel | Hacker News Reader

Does it really matter if your death sentence is read over a video call or a phone call or in a room?

On the one hand it shouldn't matter. The facts of the case are the facts of the case. If those facts warrant the death penalty then that should be the case regardless of the medium through which those facts are presented.

On the other hand, humans aren't rational and they might change their decision by seeing another human in person vs seeing them on a screen, even if the facts are the same.

Since it has the capability to affect the outcome, for fairness it should be the same for every case. Either do all cases over Zoom or none. Otherwise you might have some people arbitrarily assigned the death penalty when they might not have otherwise or vice versa.

The better solution would be to do away with the death penalty altogether since such a dire outcome shouldn't be implemented by an inherently flawed and fallible system.

It matters if sentencing you over a video call makes it more likely that you'll be sentenced to death.

I think there's a good chance that people are more willing to sentence people they haven't seen in person to death.

I would say that it doesn’t make a difference. It’s more likely to sentence someone to death who is considered “them”. As evidenced by the increased likelihood that a minority will be sentenced to death in the US and how prosecutors go out of their way to get all White jurors when prosecuting minorities.

https://eji.org/news/supreme-court-georgia-prosecutors-illeg...

Both things can be true. People can be racially biased and also find it harder to sentence someone to to death while looking them in the eyes.

I know it would matter to me. That would at least help make the case that the person being condemned is a human being, not a few pixels on a screen, nor a number in a system.

Modern militaries use systems whereby they directly kill people who are represented as pixels on a screen.

So, what is a little digital sentencing.

Usually governments give more rights and privileges to citizens than they do to enemy combatants.

They tend to kill a lot of non-combatants treated as combatants when vaguely represented as pixels on a screen though...

Yes it does.

Sentencing anyone to death (or anything really) is the maximum expression of state power on a person.

A person should have the right to face the person sentencing them, and Justice should be served by the state facing the person.

Without this face to face interaction, there is no real distinction between justice and a bureaucratic process.

I think so yes- what about the possibility of the use of a deep fake, for instance?

If the system can't figure out your judge is actually a puppet by the time the appeals process (which is being sought) starts or is denied then I don't think the problem is really "deepfakes".

How many defendants go up to the judge before sentencing and tug on their face to make sure it isn't an imposter wearing a latex mask?

it doesn't matter but I can understand that this can be very subjective.

I would expect it to matter to Zoom.

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