pgwenthold
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2001
- Messages
- 21,822
Or if he admitted he believed it.
Or at least admitted that it is the only way that his supposed objections matter.
The whole "oooooo, the number of labs was dropped from 7 to 3" as if it is nefarious, for example. Aside from the fact that people have explained why that was actually done, he needs to explain why that would actually be a problem. If it is suspicious that the number of labs was reduced, what is actually suspected? Does he think that the other 4 labs would have gotten an older date? On what grounds? Does it mean we should suspect that they were cut out of the process because someone, somewhere was concerned that those labs might have found an older date? If so, who? And why didn't they suspect the labs that were allowed to test it?
The question is, and this is the thrust of Dinwar's comments, that 3 independent labs in agreement is more than sufficient to assign an unequivocal date based on the methodology. The only way it would be suspicious is if there is reason to believe that the 3 labs were not acting independently, or that the choice of the three labs was made on the basis of a preconceived bias. Either of these positions requires a conspiracy of some sort. So if "the number of labs was cut from 7 to 3" is really a problem, it could only be because of some sort of conspiracy. Absent a conspiracy, what's the difference?
Similar for all the stuff about who was present and witnessed the cutting, etc. Why does that matter? Unless, of course, the suggestion is that somewhere, a sample was switched or something. But if that happened, it also indicates a conspiracy.
Yes, chain of custody, proper handling of evidence and things like that are important in legal proceedings, and the absence of such can (but does not have to) create "reasonable doubt." However, the basis for it is that the absence of such things allows for unscrupulous actions to occur. Criminals are allowed to get evidence thrown out because they can convince the judge that it is possible that someone could have tampered with it because of bad handling procedures. Indeed, that is what Jabba seems to be trying to sell with his objections. The problem he has is that in going that route, it begs the question of _who_ tampered with it. And in this case, it would have to be Vatican.
So we aren't talking about Mark Furman, here, and whether he was racist, and therefore you can't rule out the possibility that he tampered with the evidence in the OJ trial. In that case, it makes sense for the defense to focus on the chain of custody and how evidence was collected, because they could make the case that there was motive to tamper, and poor evidence handling would provide opportunity. However, we are talking about folks within the Vatican conspiring to make the shroud look younger than it is. That is the only reason why the opportunity to tamper with the evidence matters. Because if no one is intent on tampering with the samples, who cares about whether the details of the protocol were followed?
tl;dr answer: it's not enough to say "they didn't follow procedures." You have to show why that matters. And it only matters if there was a conspiracy.


