Legal Impact
In the courtroom, the prosecutor's fallacy typically happens by mistake, but deliberate use of the prosecutor's fallacy is prosecutorial misconduct and can subject the prosecutor to official reprimand, disbarment or criminal punishment.
In the adversarial system, lawyers are usually free to present statistical evidence as best suits their case; retrials are more commonly the result of the prosecutor's fallacy in expert witness testimony or in the judge's summation.
Read more about this topic: Prosecutor's Fallacy
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