Brickbat: Coding Error

The British government may soon change a law that led to the wrongful convictions of hundreds of postmasters for financial crimes. Over more than 15 years, Britain's state-owned Post Office prosecuted and convicted more than 700 postmasters, with 230 serving time in prison, when internal software reported missing money. British law says evidence generated by a computer is automatically assumed to be correct, and it is the defendant's burden to prove it wrong. Postmasters complained all along that the software generated false information, but postal authorities dismissed the complaints. When the government did finally look into the issue, it found the system was prone to errors, reporting shortfalls in accounts when there actually were none.