Judicial Follies: What are the odds?

Judicial Follies: What are the odds?

In 1968 the California Supreme Court decides what was, for that court, a novel question: the place of mathematics in a criminal case. The case had originated four years earlier on the morning of June 19, 1964. Juanita Brooks, who used a cane, was returning from shopping by walking down an alley, pulling a wicker basket behind her. Her purse was on top of the basket. She likely was struggling a little, when someone knocked her to ground from behi…