Word: dna
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What we've discovered doing this series is that while not every futurist is optimistic, most of the fun ones are. Michio Kaku, a physicist who discusses what will replace silicon chips in powering computers (try DNA), can't wait for the day when "objects will be animate and intelligent, and they'll talk to us. It'll be like a Disney movie. Our grandchildren will be incredulous that we lived way back when things didn't answer when you spoke to them...
...impatient with complexity, is ready for the grave duties of the presidency. That may be why he was willing to entertain doubt last week when he agreed for the first time in his record-setting 131 executions to grant a 30-day reprieve so that a more sophisticated DNA test of semen and hair samples could be performed in the rape and murder case of Ricky Nolen McGinn...
This sense of unease about a mistake-prone system is also beginning to surface among voters. Although a majority still support capital punishment, the number is down to 66%, from a high of 80% in 1994. But fully 92% support making DNA testing available to those convicted before its widespread use. At the moment, only two states, New York and Illinois, insist on giving inmates on death row access to the new technology. Why the shift? Part of it may be the legacy of the country's lower crime rate--even though murder stats have registered a slight uptick...
This month Bush will face another questionable case, and it could be a tougher call for the Governor. That's because, like the vast majority of criminal cases, it does not involve DNA evidence. Convicted murderer Gary Graham is scheduled to be executed, largely on the basis of a sole eyewitness in a case where there was no physical evidence tying Graham to the crime. Does Bush let the man die on such slim proof? Bush may be able to grant a stay, but when it comes to the shifting politics of the death penalty, there's no reprieve. --With...
...putting the brakes on the lethal-injection mill, if only in one instance, Bush shows he can take serious things seriously. Unlike in many other cases Bush has refused to reconsider, where the evidence is shakier, the evidence of guilt in McGinn's case is strong, and the DNA test may not change the outcome. Let's hope that's not why Bush chose McGinn for a reprieve. It would be a step backward in his maturation if he were to use the case to show he is always right. Matters of life and death are one test in which...