The Associated Press reports that New Jersey Attorney General John J. Farmer, Jr. is making passing a polygraph “test” a pre-condition for free exculpatory DNA testing that the state of New Jersey is offering to convicts. The following is an excerpt from the article “N.J. Offering Free DNA Tests to Cons” published in the 18 June 2001 edition of the New York Daily News:
The latest in DNA testing technology can be a ticket to freedom or to life in prison — and soon New Jersey convicts will be able to take their chances with biology.
Attorney General John Farmer is preparing to appoint a team of lawyers to review applications from defendants willing to submit a DNA sample.
The lawyers will then identify cases in which biological evidence from crime scenes has been properly preserved and it might change verdicts.
Defendants who want to take part in the testing program would first have to pass a polygraph test before their applications would be considered.
By making passing a pseudoscientific polygraph “test” (with its built-in bias against the truthful) a pre-condition for conducting genuinely scientific DNA testing that could exculpate the wrongly convicted, New Jersey Attorney General Farmer is undercutting the purported purpose of the DNA testing program. You can let Mr. Farmer know about “the lie behind the lie detector” by e-mailing his office at lpaciti@smtp.lps.state.nj.us or by calling (609) 292-4925 or by fax to (609) 292-4925 or by mail to:
New Jersey Attorney General John J. Farmer, Jr.
P.O. Box 080
Trenton, NJ 08625-0080