It's correct that this is ultimately a failure of the legal system.
However, the role of software here must not be minimized. Software makes it easier than ever to diffuse responsibility and create opaque processes that leave the least powerful people at the bottom of the hierarchy holding the bag. By rigidly encoding flawed assumptions and executing them without question, software is the ultimate realizer of our Kafkaesque nightmares.
> However, the role of software here must not be minimized.
No argument that the software bears fault, too.
However, when you accuse someone of stealing money, you should have to prove that they stole the money. This isn't some invisible crime. There should need to be evidence that the stolen money went into their account, got spent to buy something, got pulled from the till on camera, got transferred to Bitcoin--something.
The fact that all these people got convicted with no evidence that the money was ever in their possession is a gigantic legal problem.
It's not entirely unlike Therac-25, including the deaths (albeit more indirectly caused in this case.). There was a certain element of operator error, but that doesn't excuse the faulty programming.
The legal system failed these people horribly. And the people who pursued these cases with no direct evidence whatsoever should suffer jail time.