Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Jamaica Observer staff reporter Ann Margaret Lim reports. WHEN the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) discovered that 13 of its expensive laptop computers were missing, it called in a lie detector expert. Seven suspects were run through the polygraph test and one was identified as the culprit. Following his confession, he and four people who …
IsraelNationalNews.com reports in a short article that is cited here in full: (IsraelNN.com) The Knesset Social Affairs & Health Committee is preparing two bills for a first reading in the Knesset, both aimed at making a compulsory polygraph exam for job applicants illegal. The bills are authored by MKs Yehiel Hazan (Likud) and Zahava Gal-On …
Staff reporter Karyl Walker reports for the Jamaica Observer. THE police chief warned yesterday that cops seeking promotion to senior ranks or to assignments in sensitive areas will be subject to lie detector and other integrity tests as part of his programme to root corruption out of the constabulary. Earlier the Police Services Commission (PSC) …
Tim Smith reports for the Greenville Times. Excerpt: The FBI has begun polygraphing Greenville postal workers and truck drivers as the investigation into who delivered a package containing the deadly poison ricin to a Greenville mail facility moves into the third week, the president of the local postal workers union said Thursday. Dennis Zimmerman, president …
In a ruling handed down Wed., 5 November 2003 in Idaho v. Perry, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled polygraph evidence inadmissible. Craig T. Perry had sought the admission of testimony by Dr. Charles R. Honts regarding a polygraph examination that he administered. Download Idaho Supreme Court 2003 Ruling No. 109 (33 kb PDF).
Chris Summers reports for BBC News Online in an article titled, “Confessions of a serial killer.” Excerpt: When Gary Leon Ridgway stands up in a Seattle court on Wednesday and admits 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder he will officially become America’s most prolific serial killer. It is not a very good advertisement for …
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer Christy Gutowski reports on the case of Kevin Liszka in an article titled, “‘The perfect mark.’” Excerpt: As Kevin Liszka sat in a police department holding cell for three days, he remained confident authorities would realize they had the wrong man. Instead, police hauled Liszka off to the DuPage County …
Richard Willing reports for USA Today. Excerpt: PHILADELPHIA — In a quiet corner of the University of Pennsylvania campus, professor Britton Chance is using near-infrared light to peek at lies as they form in the brains of student volunteers. Eventually, Chance hopes to see something else: a day when a device like his replaces the …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy comments in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: TELLER ON POLYGRAPH In the perennial dispute over the legitimacy of polygraph testing as a tool for security screening of government employees, the late physicist Edward Teller sided with his scientific colleagues at the national laboratories …
In an article titled, “Investigators open Guantanamo probe,” the Associated Press reports that the commander of the Camp Delta detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is considering polygraph interrogations for personnel working at the facility. Excerpt: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba – Two dozen investigators began searching for possible security breaches yesterday at …