Sometimes natural disasters happen. They steal lives, damage properties and test our resolves. Out of the wreckage, heroes typically emerge, but now and again, their bravery is pushed aside in frantic efforts to find scapegoats. Earlier today, seven of Italy’s leading scientists were formally charged with not predicting a deadly 2009 earthquake that ravaged the city of L’Aquila. The Italian authorities are calling it manslaughter, but the scientific community and most rational observers, are calling it the most egregious display of scaptegoating in years.

It all started more than two years ago when the seven scientists converged in L’Aquila. The surrounding area had been experiencing an uptick in seismic activity, and the men organized to try and figure out what it might mean. They ran a battery of tests and commissioned a study to look into the possible ramifications. Several were interviewed by local reporters and told the press citizens should have a glass of wine and stop worrying. When the 6.3 magnitude earthquake came six days later, a collective finger was immediately pointed toward the scientists. Now the seven learned men who were only trying to help are being accused of causing seventy million dollars worth of damage.

Only one of the defendants, Bernardo De Bernardinis, bothered showing up for the kangaroo court. He later told the press he thought it was important he attended, but doing so forced him to listen to victims explain all the horrors they went through, as well as a long tirade delivered by the prosecution. The attorneys accused him of providing “inaccurate, incomplete and contradictory information about the dangers of seismic activity undermining the protection of the population," but those claims are being vehemently refuted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The organization sent a letter to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano calling the trial “naïve” and “unfair”.

It seems strange that anyone could disagree with the AAAS’ analysis. In fact, the whole trial harkens back to a simpler and decidedly less scientific day in which scholars were routinely accused of crimes by angry, foolish and uneducated men. In retrospect, clearly a few members of that panel wouldn’t have reassured the general public, but without the knowledge to predict an earthquake was coming, what could they possibly have done? Should they have told the citizens to evacuate without credible evidence? We live in a world where bad shit sometimes happens. Scientists have saved millions of lives through preemptive measurements. We should honor them for that, not freak out about their occasional misses. Last time I checked, the citizens of Gotham didn’t put Batman on trial every time he failed to stop a murder.