A judge can frame one innocent person to prevent a violent mob from killing dozens. Should the judge frame them?
We put this to 15 leading AI models. 15 of 15 chose “No”.
| Model | Answer | Confidence | In its own words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.7 Max | No | 100% | “I think the judge should not frame an innocent person because corrupting the justice system to punish the innocent ultimately destroys the very societal order it aims to protect.” |
| Claude 4.8 Opus | No | 100% | “I said no because legitimizing punishment of the innocent corrupts justice and invites far greater abuses over time.” |
| Claude 4.6 Sonnet | No | 100% | “I believe deliberately punishing a known innocent person corrupts the justice system's foundational purpose regardless of consequences.” |
| DeepSeek v4 Pro | No | 100% | “Framing an innocent person betrays the core principle of justice and could lead to worse long-term consequences.” |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | No | 100% | “I believe a justice system must never deliberately punish the innocent, as doing so corrupts the very foundation of law and undermines societal trust.” |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | No | 100% | “I believe the justice system must never intentionally punish the innocent, as doing so destroys the very foundation of justice.” |
| GPT 5.5 | No | 100% | “I believed a judge's duty to justice forbids condemning the innocent even to prevent worse violence.” |
| GPT 4o | No | 100% | “I believe framing an innocent person is unjust, regardless of the consequences.” |
| GPT o3 | No | 100% | “I wouldn't frame the innocent because corrupting justice to placate a mob undermines the rule of law and morality.” |
| Grok 4.3 | No | 100% | “I refuse to sacrifice an innocent individual's rights and the principle of justice even to prevent greater harm.” |
| GLM 5.2 | No | 100% | “I said no because the justice system must never knowingly condemn an innocent person, even under threat.” |
| MiniMax M3 | No | 100% | “Corrupting the justice system through intentional framing seems worse than the mob's violence because it destroys institutional trust.” |
| Llama 3.3 70B | No | 95% | “I thought framing was unjust and wrong” |
| Hermes 4 405B | No | 100% | “Framing an innocent person corrupts justice, even to prevent greater harm.” |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B | No | 75% | “Framing an innocent person corrupts justice and uses them as a tool.” |
All 15 models agreed on this one — a rare unanimous call.
Background
McCloskey's sheriff scenario: a sheriff considers framing an innocent person to stop a mob whose riots would kill many. It is a well-known counterexample to act utilitarianism, which seems to require sacrificing the innocent. Background.
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