Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Waco Tribune-Herald staff writer Tommy Witherspoon reports. Excerpt: Waco police have asked family members of Orville and Ruby Loving to take polygraph tests as the investigation into the deaths of the elderly couple continues. While some polygraph tests have been administered, Waco police report that arrests in the May 12 slaying of the Lovings at …
Sacramento Bee staff writer Ralph Montaño reports. Excerpt: Douglas Mansfield and Jeannie Overall know when you’re lying. Both have spent 20 years watching for the telltale signs: a jumpy pulse, a sweaty palm or a pause before a breath. As polygraph examiners for the California Department of Justice, they spend most of their time asking …
New York Times correspondents James Risen and Raymond Bonner report. Excerpt: WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation dismissed as useless today a privately administered polygraph examination taken by Representative Gary A. Condit in connection with the disappearance of Chandra Ann Levy. In a statement, the F.B.I. said there was “no way to …
Slate senior writer William Saletan comments on polygraphy. Excerpt: Two weeks ago, besieged by speculation that he had killed former Washington intern Chandra Levy, Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., launched a strategic retreat. He granted the police a long interview, reportedly admitting to an affair with Levy. The cops emerged to say he had answered all …
The Corpus Christi Caller Times reports in an article titled, “County clerk’s office employees asked to take polygraph tests.” This short article is reproduced in full below: From staff reports Employees at the Nueces County Clerk’s office are being asked to submit to polygraph exams as investigators continue to probe the disappearance of $4,700, said …
Washington Times staff writers Jabeen Bhatti and John Drake report. Excerpt: D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey called a private lie-detector test given to Rep. Gary A. Condit worthless, saying the police department has finished examining the test and has turned it over to the FBI. The District’s top police official said yesterday that the …
Washington Post staff writers Allan Lengel and Petula Dvorak report. Excerpt: D.C. police yesterday escalated their dispute with Rep. Gary A. Condit and his attorney, dismissing the results of a privately administered polygraph as having “no investigative value” and suggesting that they still may need to talk to the congressman about his relationship with missing …
Michael Doyle of the Bee Washington Bureau reports in this article published in the Modesto Bee. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — FBI experts on Tuesday began examining Rep. Gary Condit’s private lie-detector test, while police searched woods in the Chandra Levy disappearance, and Condit went about his business in the camera’s glare. Although skeptical of the test …
New York Press writer Alexander Cockburn comments on polygraphy in his column, “Wild Justice” (Vol. 14, No. 29). Excerpt: I’m no fan of the man from Modesto. But it was troubling to see Gary Condit being hounded by the cable news shows into taking a polygraph test and then trashed for using his own polygrapher, …
Pete Williams of NBC News reports. Excerpt: July 17 — Even though Rep. Gary Condit’s lawyers have now turned over the results of their own lie detector test, Washington, D.C. police still want the congressman to take one of theirs. All of this has brought the science of lie detectors front and center. How do …