Unreliable Evidence Quotes

I can prove anything by statistics except the truth.

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that are not so

You're trying too hard to find a correlation here. You don't know these people, you don't know what they intended. You try to compile statistics and correlate them to a result that amounts to nothing more than speculation.

Torture produces unreliable evidence and therefore doesn't achieve and protect anybody. Torture corrupts those who are doing the torturing.

Society is now less convinced of the absolute accuracy of the criminal justice system.

I don’t care much for facts, am not much interested in them, you cant stand a fact up, you’ve got to prop it up, and when you move to one side a little and look at it from that angle, it’s not thick enough to cast a shadow in that direction.

The antiquity and general acceptance of an opinion is not assurance of its truth.

Unfortunately, the American justice system is just riddled with lies and inconsistencies.

Majorities are no less exposed to error and frustration than kings and dictators. That a fact is deemed true by the majority does not prove its truth.

Judging by past experience, a substantial number of death row inmates are indeed innocent and there is a high risk that some of them will be executed. Once an execution occurs, the error is final.

Polygraph tests are 20th-century witchcraft.

Seeing is not always believing.

The credit which the apparent conformity with recognized scientific standards can gain for seemingly simple but false theories may, as the present instance shows, have grave consequences.

One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways.

I think memories are like dreams. Not reliable proof of anything. I can't prove a memory any more than I can prove a dream.

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination.

And it turned out that the Roberts Commission did not fully utilize the information available and that it came to conclusions which were I think quite short sighted and, indeed, in some cases, scapegoated individuals.

There's an awful lot about our criminal justice system that is dysfunctional. Everyone who sets foot in a criminal courtroom will see myriad ways the system is dysfunctional.

He uses statistics like a drunk uses lamp-posts, more for support than illumination.

… there are numerous examples of cases where relying on information obtained through torture has disastrous consequences. The reality is that use of torture produces inconsistent results that are an unreliable basis for action and policy. The overwhelming consensus of intelligence professionals is that torture produces unreliable information. And the overwhelming consensus of senior military leaders is that resort to torture is dishonorable. Use of such primitive methods actually puts our own troops and our nation at risk.

Humans are startlingly bad at detecting fraud. Even when we're on the lookout for signs of deception, studies show, our accuracy is hardly better than chance.

Everything you see is filtered through your visual system (imperfect) and your brain (also imperfect, despite what your mom told you). Witness testimony is the worst kind of evidence in science.

It doesn't take many observations to think you've spotted a trend, and it's probably not a trend at all.

The old saying of ‘Vox populi, vox Dei’, as every philosopher knows, cannot be trusted in science.

The U.S. is, so far as I know, the only nation which places such extensive reliance on the polygraph. It has gotten us into a lot of trouble.