Conviction overturned for man electrocuted by Texas judge - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: chriswebb
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 12:45:15 am
content: Reading that headline you might think that this was a death penalty case. Then getting to the article you see, that it was with a stun "belt". So naturally you assume that the judge must be in jail for killing someone... Then you realize the defendant is still alive, and that the bbc editor who approved that headline doesn't know what electrocute means...Quotehttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43307797

author: sokoloff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 12:54:49 am
content: Several dictionaries list the definition as "injure or kill by electricity". Others take the hardline only "kill by electricity" definition.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 01:08:34 am
content: Quote from: sokoloff on March 08, 2018, 12:54:49 amYes, it's true that colloquially it's come to mean any electric shock. But the word "electrocute" is, after all, a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute", so a journalist (and the court!) should know better!As for the subject matter itself, it defies belief, doesn't it?? Here is what I posted on Facebook earlier today, linking to anarticle in the Washington Post, which goes into a great deal more detail than BBC:Quote from: tooki's facebook

author: chriswebb
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 02:23:06 am
content: The main problem is the fact the headline with the word electrocute implies that this article is a death penalty case when they needed to be explicit.edit: Also couldn't decide whether or not this was appropriate for the forum, but I went ahead due to how messed up the actual story was, they didn't need to embellish it with the word electrocute.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 03:53:01 am
content: Quote from: tooki on March 08, 2018, 01:08:34 amNot colloquially only:Merriam Websterdefines it as both for accidents with fatal or injury consequences, although for inmates it has a second definition exclusive for a fatal consequence.IMO it's not necessarily fault of the journalist.

author: 3db
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 03:57:27 am
content: Quote from: chriswebb on March 08, 2018, 02:23:06 amI'd have thought the main problem was that nutter being a judge.3DB

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 07:22:48 am
content: I'm sure a headline like that was not chosen by accident. And it seems to have been successfulYou read the article, and a couple of other people here now have read the article, who, like me, would otherwise never have done so. They got their advertisement hits.

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 07:38:30 am
content: There is a no politics policy on this forum.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 07:55:54 am
content: The BBC are extremely lax in their understanding of technical matters and the experts they often bring in give clueless and superficial explanations. they are these days just another media organisation.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 07:57:05 am
content: Quote from: NANDBlog on March 08, 2018, 07:38:30 amwe've not got there yet but yes if this gets political it will be locked.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 11:20:57 am
content: Quote from: Simon on March 08, 2018, 07:55:54 amI listen to the BBC World Service every day and the presenters are pretty technically illiterate as are some of the guests. Some guests are very technically literate though. But we had this woman, our so-called Minister for Information Technology in Australia...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Coonan. Technically, she had no idea what she was talking about. Quote, verbatim when interviewed in the ABC: "The country people get 1 megabit and city people get 10 megabits". A typical 10 year old would know more about technology.Who knows how such an unqualified person get get such a senior position. Not everyone can be technically literate in life, but when you have someone who is technically clueless leading a country in technology, you have a problem.

author: StuUK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 11:42:26 am
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on March 08, 2018, 11:20:57 amLol, you must live on another planet from me

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 12:45:06 pm
content: Quote from: Ranayna on March 08, 2018, 07:22:48 amThe BBC have fallen victim to the use of click bait particularly on facebook and like my local rag will also refer to any depression in a road as a "sink hole".

author: StuUK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 12:51:19 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on March 08, 2018, 12:45:06 pmFair to say the quality of the BBC has declined significantly....

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 05:16:40 pm
content: As I showed in the actual quote from the court decision, the court used the word "electrocute".Regardless, that's all a distraction from the point: WTF was that judge thinking, using the shock collar ankle bracelets like that? Insanity!

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 05:27:38 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on March 08, 2018, 11:20:57 amVery simple, The Peter Principle--Managers rise to the level of their incompetence.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 05:41:50 pm
content: Quote from: tooki on March 08, 2018, 05:16:40 pmIt's par for the course for Texas.

author: tpowell1830
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 05:48:29 pm
content: Quote from: Bassman59 on March 08, 2018, 05:41:50 pmAre you from Texas, just wondering why you would say that.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 06:08:19 pm
content: I hope he enjoys his freedom. Curious as to how long it takes for family members of the child to make him permanently 'disappear'. Texas is a big state after all.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 06:32:02 pm
content: You can be electrocuted and live...If your heart stops then you're technically "dead" (there is some medical term shenanigans between this and "brain dead"), but you can still be resuscitated.That's probably not what happened here though...

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 08, 2018, 06:42:29 pm
content: UK first aid states that dead is dead and there is no revival from that, if you are "brought back to life by the kiss of life bla bla bla" you were not dead, news papers and the general public often get this wrong. your brain is the bit that dies approximately 2 minutes after blood does not deliver more oxygen after that it can no longer control the heart and make it pump blood/oxygen to the brain so the self sustaining cycle is over and so is life.

author: Cyberdragon
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 05:11:30 am
content: I found it.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_deathEDIT: When you can't be resuscitated it's called "legal death".See...shenanigans...

author: julianhigginson
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 09, 2018, 05:24:32 am
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on March 08, 2018, 06:08:19 pmdon't worry.."He has now been ordered to stand for a new trial."just because the case has been thrown out doesn't mean the guy is free!He would be awaiting the new trial immediately.Probably in the same prison cell, still.Not sure how any opinions on a judge summarily punishing a defendant during a trial with high voltage electrical shocks fits into the area of "politics" anyway - thinking that's at all acceptable isn't a political position, it's the position of someone who understands nothing of the requirements for civil society or basic fundamentals of western law.