Geologists who didn’t warn a town about an impending earthquake are not murderers, an Italian appeals court ruled today.
A 2012 decision that rocked the scientific world was overturned today by an appeals court, according to Italy’s Repubblica newspapers and confirmed by other Italian outlets. In that decision, six prominent geologists and one government worker were convicted of manslaughter for failing to notify the town of L’Aquila of a 2009 earthquake that killed at least 309 people. The scientists were originally sentenced to six years in prison and were to pay more than $10 million in damages.
On March 31, 2009, six days before the earthquake, the scientists had downplayed the likelihood of a major quake despite increased seismic activity in the area. The judge in the original case said that the scientists had made “an assessment of the risks that was incomplete, inept, unsuitable, and criminally mistaken.” Ful story: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/geologists-who-didnt-predict-an-earthquake-arent-killers-italian-court-rules