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teraflop | 1 month ago

Serious question: if the chance of evidence leading to a convistion is very very small, what would be the benefit of opening an investigation? Just to go through the motions on principle? And what would they even investigate?

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j-bos|1 month ago

One benefit is demonstrating at least a facade of seeking justice. Also, obscuring a crime for personal benefit is itself a crime.

knowitnone3|1 month ago

so cops driving around is good enough, they don't have to actually catch criminals because it's it facade that really matters.

brianpan|1 month ago

It's a cost-benefit analysis like many other things. There are limited resources, they should be spent on investigating cases that have a chance of getting closed.

Cold cases might get reopened because of advances in technology or other changes over time.

cucumber3732842|1 month ago

There is no potential "principal" here that is distinguishable from posturing and dick swinging.

Unless you find some unforeseeable smoking gun any conviction will necessarily be questionable at best. That doesn't really serve much of a purpose beyond saying "we're the prosecutor's office, look how bad ass we are, look how we somehow manage to convict someone decades later, fear us". Never mind the fact that dredging this stuff up is not likely to be good for the family and that odds are all of these deaths are purely accidental/negligent so it's not like you're going after a "real criminal".

radiator_1451|1 month ago

Investigating a murder is posturing? I really don't understand the "bad ass, fear us" language. Do you consider all criminal investigations to be as frivolous?

> odds are all of these deaths are purely accidental/negligent

How can you say that given that the article presents evidence that

> "... someone gave this baby crushed Tylenol-3,” likely mixed in breast milk or formula

Is that an accident according to you, or do you have any evidence that the article is wrong about that conclusion?