Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Staff writer Ian Hoffman reports for the Oakland Tribune. Excerpt: In an about-face, top U.S. nuclear weapons officials said they plan on scaling back polygraph testing for thousands of weapons scientists and workers, in part to avoid driving them away. Yet the U.S. Energy Department’s proposed reduction of polygraph testing still would leave enough top …
Associated Press correspondent Robert Gehrke reports in this article published in Newsday. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — The Energy Department plans to use fewer polygraph tests to detect espionage at energy labs after a study said employees could be unjustly accused — in effect reversing a policy that grew out of the Wen Ho Lee investigation. The …
Richard Willing reports for USA Today. This short article is cited here in full: WASHINGTON — Citing ongoing doubts about the accuracy of lie detectors, a top Energy Department official said Thursday the department plans to eliminate routine screening of most employees. About 20,000 Energy Department workers, including many with access to secret weapons programs, …
New York Times correspondent William J. Broad reports. Excerpt: The Energy Department said yesterday in a surprise announcement that it was sharply cutting the number of lie detector tests it would give to people with access to nuclear secrets, particularly at the nation’s weapons laboratories. The deputy energy secretary, Kyle E. McSlarrow, said at a …
Beacon Journal staff writer Craig Webb reports in an article titled, “Falls police dispatcher loses job.” Excerpt: The Cuyahoga Falls police dispatcher whose allegations about her bosses led to a major departmental shake-up is no longer on the job. Mayor Don Robart said Tuesday that Kathleen M. Ball was fired as the result of a …
Beacon Journal staff writer Julie Wallace reports. Excerpt: The investigation into the missing petitions at the Summit County Board of Elections has moved to a new level — lie-detector tests. This week, investigators from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office started picking employees from the roughly 35 full-timers and 21 part-timers and asking them to submit …
Richard A. Muller, a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, writes for Technology Review. Erroneously assuming that polygraphy is a valid diagnostic technique with an 85% accuracy rate, and ignoring the issue of countermeasures, Muller concludes that polygraph “evidence” should be admissible in court: Now we come to the true paradox. Lie detector …
Amanda Wardle reports for the Nashville City Newspaper. Excerpt: Attorneys have asked Gov. Phil Bredesen to review and consider clemency in the case of Tennessee death row inmate Philip Workman, pointing to evidence that an eyewitness in a 1982 capital murder trial was actually lying when he fingered Workman as the man who killed a …
Chris Bundgaard reports for WKRN-TV News 2. Excerpt: Philip Workman faces execution in September for the 1981 shooting death of a Memphis police officer. On Tuesday, attorneys asked Governor Phil Bredesen to spare the inmate’s life, saying a lie detector test supports their claims that an eyewitness lied. For years, lawyers for Workman have contended …
Missy Stoddard reports for the Tampa Tribune in an article titled, “Judge Keeps Woman’s Probation.” This short article is cited here in full: DADE CITY – A judge Monday denied a request to terminate the probation of a former Zephyrhills woman who had sex with two neighborhood teens. Zephyrhills police arrested Lynne Cunneen, 37, in …