# A Perfect Justice System **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 14, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfect-justice-system/634674 "2012-09-14T08:29:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfect-justice-system/634674/21 "2012-09-16T04:55:58Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > Quite the opposite: it would entail punishing people for acting with a criminal disregard for the rights of others, and not for the vagaries of fate that lie beyond their control. If someone tries to murder a police officer, for example, they would be punished for pointing a gun at an innocent person and pulling the trigger - _something they actually did_. If the ambulance crew manages to mitigate the damage by resuscitating the cop, that does not change what the would-be murderer did, and tried to do, only what his actions achieved. Well, I disagree with this philosophical interpretation, and stand by the common practice in the U.S. and most other of the industrialized democracies. If the ambulance crew manages to save the victim’s life, they also save the assailant from a charge of murder. As I noted above, a charge of attempted murder is no light matter. I can respect your ethical view, but I disagree with it, and, as an ordinary matter of politics, would not vote for a reformer who wished to implement it. In any case, as I see it, this digression is irrelevant to the matter of the “Perfect Justice Machine.” Such a machine, of course, would be able to reveal to us matters of intent which, in the real world, are often concealed. It is a damn fool of a criminal who goes out and commits a crime, leaving behind a manifesto (suicide note, Facebook comments, whatever) that indicate his intent. However…it seems that people who commit crimes are often also damn fools in other ways, so we can draw some comfort from the knowledge that intent is often demonstrated in a court of law. A Perfect Justice Machine would increase that to always, but that wouldn’t be so very revolutionary a change. Heck, compared to when I was a young’un, DNA testing and other modern scientific forensic techniques almost rise to the level of “Perfect Justice Machines.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-perfect-justice-system/634674.md?page=1)