Seven Italian earthquake authorities were sentenced to six years in prison for failing to adequately warn residents of a seismically active area before a devastating 2009 earthquake killed more than 300 people in L'Aquila.

The defendants said they would appeal the sentences handed down by Judge Marco Billi in a L’Aquila court Monday. The group of seven convicted experts consists of scientists – mostly seismologists and geologists - and one government official. 

Judge Billi’s decision may have widespread consequences for scientific experts. According to the New York Times,

The verdicts jolted the international scientific community, which feared it might open the way to an onslaught of legal actions against scientists who evaluate the risks of natural hazards. “This is the death of public service on the part of professors and professionals,” Luciano Maiani, the current president of the risk commission, told the news agency Ansa. The legal and media pressure sparked by the trial have made it impossible to carry out professional consultancies for the state, he said, adding: “This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.”

The verdict has led scientists to question whether issuing public warnings about low-probability earthquakes is necessary – and may protect them legally - or if it does more harm than good. Despite previous seismic activity, the earthquake that hit L’Aquila two years ago was an unlikely occurrance.

Italian researcher Giampaolo Giuliani, who tried to warn the population days before the earthquake hit, called the decision “historic,” citing it as an example of the responsibility and mistakes of the scientific community.

Lawyers for the defense condemned the decision, with one calling it the most erroneous ruling he’d seen in his career.

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