People v. Collins
Supreme Court of California
438 P.2d 33 (Cal. 1968)
Relevant factsFree
The Collinses (defendants) were convicted of robbery after a mathematics expert testified that, based on a set of assumed physical characteristics (blond hair, ponytail, bearded Black man, mustache, interracial couple, yellow car) and the arbitrary probability the prosecutor assigned to each, the product of those probabilities yielded only a one-in-12-million chance that a random couple would share all those traits, implying near certainty the Collinses were the guilty couple; Malcolm Collins appealed his conviction.
IssueFree
Whether a low mathematical probability that someone other than the defendant fits the description of the crime's perpetrators is sufficient to convict the defendant.