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Take Two

Italian scientists found guilty of failing to predict deadly earthquake

By Take Two Staff
Published Oct 23, 2012
This picture shows damaged building following the 2009 earthquake on October 22, 2012 in the village of Onna. Six Italian scientists and a government official were found guilty the same day of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009, and sentenced to six years in jail in a watershed ruling in a case that has provoked outrage in the international science community.
This picture shows damaged building following the 2009 earthquake on October 22, 2012 in the village of Onna. Six Italian scientists and a government official were found guilty the same day of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in L'Aquila in 2009, and sentenced to six years in jail in a watershed ruling in a case that has provoked outrage in the international science community.
(
FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images
)

Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.

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Italian scientists found guilty of failing to predict deadly earthquake

It's fitting that that our next story comes from the country which sentenced Galileo to house arrest for life after he proved that the earth revolves around the sun.

Now it would appear Italy is once again getting the science wrong. Yesterday an Italian court sentenced six scientists and a government bureaucrat to six years in jail on manslaughter charges for failing to predict a 2009 earthquake. The quake devastated the small city of L'Aquila and killed more than 300 people.

David Roepik, a risk assessment expert from Harvard, talks about the verdict.