Mike Levsen writes for the Aberdeen, South Dakota American News. Excerpt:
I’m going on record right now. I will not submit voluntarily to a polygraph test at any time, for any reason. Even if I’m innocent – especially if I’m innocent.
The use of the lie-detector test has not gone the way of reading bumps on the head and tea leaves as it should have, and people must stand up against it.
Polygraphs are ostensibly used to indicate whether or not a person is lying. However, authorities are always careful to not call it a “lie-detector” because they know it isn’t. They say it’s a “tool” they use in investigations. Well, it’s a tool to find the truth the same as a rubber hose is a tool to get a confession. It’s used to intimidate.
The general public believes in this junk science. When a person “refuses to take a polygraph” much of the public assumes guilt. When a defense attorney says “my client will take a lie-detector test” they know potential jurors will think it means something.
It means nothing. In fact, it means less than nothing. The very high degree of false results makes the polygraph “evidence” a red herring. One might as well offer as evidence of guilt that the suspect called heads and the coin came up tails. Even if it was 90 percent accurate (which it isn’t), how do we know who is in the 10 percent. Would we accept fingerprints if they were 90 percent accurate?
Study after study after study proves the machine doesn’t work. It measures physiological reactions, and can be fooled intentionally or accidentally. Aldrich Ames, the CIA spy, passed his test repeatedly. Thousands of completely innocent job seekers have been denied government jobs because of false readings. The National Academy of Science rejects it, and all courts reject it as phony science.