The Wall Street Journal-20080128-The Informed Reader - Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources

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The Informed Reader / Insights and Items of Interest From Other Sources

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Law:

Weighing Costs of Death-Penalty Cases

At the heart of the debate over how much to spend on the legal defense of alleged killers, lies a paradox, says Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker. When the evidence is incontrovertible and the crime heinous, the cost of defending the alleged culprit is usually higher.

When it is fairly obvious the defendant committed a capital crime, the defense team is required to search for any mitigating factor that might convince a jury that the defendant's life be spared, which essentially means spending money on experts such as forensic psychiatrists. A 2003 Supreme Court decision extended the search for mitigating factors to a defendant's early life, making it more or less mandatory for defense teams to compile expensive mini-biographies.

It isn't clear how to keep such costs down. Some states cap the legal fees that can be spent on death-penalty cases. Florida sets its cap at $15,000 and South Carolina and Oklahoma at $25,000. But spending on experts, which isn't subject to those limits, "often push the total cost in those states to six figures," says Mr. Toobin.

The costs can be enough to derail a trial entirely, as is the case with the Georgia trial of Brian Nichols who, in 2005, shot a judge and a court reporter in a courtroom while making an escape; he then killed two more people, stealing cars and taking a hostage. More than two years later, the cost of paying for experts has played a large role in exhausting the funds of the Georgia agency charged with covering the defense of death-penalty defendants. It has already paid $1.2 million so far in legal fees and expert bills. With Mr. Nichols's legal team refusing to go on without further payment, jury selection hasn't even been completed.

The costs of Mr. Nichols's defense has provoked outrage by some legislators. But their refusal to pay the defense has slowed the trial to a standstill increasing the chances the prosecution will eventually settle for a life sentence.

-- The New Yorker -- Feb. 4

Language:

Geneticists Find New Clues

To the Origins of Language

Scientists are closing in on the genetic origins of language by combining two previously unrelated areas in genetics -- behavioral disorders and evolution.

While the approach is still a long way from identifying the specific genes that allow humans to talk and understand each other, it has yielded some tantalizing discoveries that suggest scientists are headed in the right direction, says journalist Jon Cohen in MIT Technology Review.

Linguists have long looked for clues to how language works by looking at how behavioral disorders such as autism and dyslexia impair language ability.

In the modern version of this approach, geneticists sift through the genes of people with various language-impairing disorders looking for common genetic aberrations. This has already shown that a gene called FOXP2, which also ensures the brain's asymmetrical layout, seems to be important for language.

In the parallel field of evolutionary genetics, FOXP2 has turned out to be an important distinguishing factor between humans and nonhumans. The human version of the gene has a few crucial differences from the versions in chimpanzees and mice. A study of Neanderthal DNA suggested that Neanderthals, who probably had some capacity for language, also had those differences.

Scientists will have to uncover many more genes before they have a full understanding of language's genetic roots, says Mr. Cohen. But as they do, they will uncover ways to treat the internal physical disruptions that can leave people lost for words.

-- MIT Technology Review -- January/February

Water Source:

Is It Time to Swallow Idea

Of Recycled Sewage Waste?

It is time for the U.S. to drop its squeamishness over drinking recycled sewage, along with its notion that drinking treated sea water is any less revolting, says Eilene Zimmerman.

Recycling sewage is a cheap and efficient solution to the nation's water problems, especially compared to removing salt from sea water, says Ms. Zimmerman. Water officials in Orange County, Calif., estimated water from recycling sewage would cost $525 per acre-foot to produce, compared to $800 and $2,000 per acre-foot for a desalinization program. The county recently opened a "Groundwater Replenishment System" that feeds treated sewage through clay and sand and into lakes.

But Orange County is an exception. Voters elsewhere consistently block sewage recycling programs, preferring desalinization. The voters should remember, says Ms. Zimmerman, that plenty of unpalatable waste from the land flows into the sea, including metals, pesticides, pathogens and, of course, sewage.

-- Slate -- Jan. 25

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