Lawyer In Murder Case Trying To Prove GPS Is Junk Science
from the um...-good-luck-with-that-one dept
We've written before about court cases that involve some element of technology, where a lawyer convinces a judge or a jury of something by simply using a lot of techno-babble that doesn't make sense, in an effort to prove a point that simply isn't true. It sounds like that's what a lawyer is about to do in the well hyped Laci Peterson murder trial here in California. Scott Peterson's lawyer is going to try to have the court exclude GPS evidence on Peterson's whereabouts by claiming GPS technology is unreliable and inaccurate and has "not been generally accepted by the scientific community." Considering the number of applications that use GPS technology with pinpoint accuracy every day, they're going to have a tough time convincing many people on this one.
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Clear line of sight?
Have you ever tried to use one of those GPS based automobile direction computers (the kind like Hertz uses) during a heavy rainstorm? The GPS guidance computer is completely useless and won't track your position at all.
Perhaps the lawyers will use this type of explanation to prove that even though GPS works well when you have clear line of sight to satellites, there are times when GPS is useless and meaningless.
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hail mary time
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Re: Clear line of sight?
Heavy tree cover can reduce accuracy to 40-50 feet. Strong electrical storms can cause you to lose tracking in the open. I've never had this happen for more than a few minutes, but I guess that could be enough time for me to get from Monterey to San Diego in my super sonic invisible jet.
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Re: Clear line of sight?
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Re: Clear line of sight?
"I have clocked my back porch at over 60mph..."
Did you get a ticket?
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Next Line of Defense...
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