RSS WMNigel Marriott on "You the jury - Is this case a prosecutor fallacy or not?"

Date: Monday 20 October 2025 5.00PM - Thursday 23 October 2025 7.00PM
Location: Aston University, Birmingham
Adrian Cadbury Lecture Theatre, Aston University, Birmingham
Please see the following links containing further location details:
http://learning-spaces.tlc.aston.ac.uk/s/adrian-cadbury/
https://www.conferenceaston.co.uk/find-us
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Da81p2ULPGauLPgQ9
Local Group Meeting
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The West Midlands local group will be holding a joint talk with the Statistics and the Law Section by Nigel Marriott on the 20th of October at Aston University, Birmingham. This will be an interactive talk based on some expert witness work, and should be of interest to people both new to and experience with expert witness work, and will also be accessible to non-statisticians.

Event hosted by Aston University’s Forensic Data Science Laboratory https://forensic-data-science.net/.

 
The prosecutor’s fallacy confuses the probability of finding the evidence on an innocent person with the probability that a person on whom the evidence is found is innocent” - The Inns of Court College of Advocacy joint publication with the Royal Statistical Society on Statistical Evidence page 22, 2019  
 
When statistical evidence in a case indicates a very low p-value, it doesn’t automatically mean the case could be a prosecutor fallacy.  What matters is how the p-value is interpreted alongside the other evidence in the case.
 
In this talk, you will get the chance to be the jury!  Based on a case Nigel testified in as a statistical expert, you will first hear the statistical evidence he presented followed by 6 more pieces of evidence from the prosecution and defence.  After each piece of evidence, you will have the chance to vote on the likelihood of the defendant being guilty of the charge.  There will then be a chance to discuss why you voted the way you did before Nigel reveals the actual verdict and its implications.
 
Nigel will then discuss how his experience in this case led him to reconsider the infamous Sally Clark case.  He will explain why he thinks statisticians have drawn the wrong lesson from this case and others.

Event hosted by Aston University’s Forensic Data Science Laboratory https://forensic-data-science.net/.
 
Nigel Marriott (CStat, MAE)
 
Contact Alexander Kent 
 
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