Scientists guilty for not warning quake risks

Six Italian scientists and a government official were found guilty in a watershed trial of multiple manslaughter for underestimating the risks of a killer earthquake in the town of L’Aquila in 2009.

Judge Marco Billi sentenced all seven members of Italy’s Major Risks Committee to six years in prison for failing to warn the population of the risks just days before L’Aquila and surrounding towns were hit by a quake which killed 309 people — and ordered them all to pay court costs and damages.

Scientists worldwide had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no way to predict quakes.