In 2013, a judge in Wisconsin sentenced a man named Eric Loomis to six years in prison. The judge cited many factors. One of them was a number generated by a computer program that Loomis had never seen, could not examine, and had no legal right to challenge. The company that built the program called its methodology a trade secret. The Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the sentence. [1] This is not an isolated incident. It is standard practice in courts across the United States.
