{"id":3490,"date":"2002-04-11T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2002-04-11T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=3490"},"modified":"2021-02-22T16:25:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T21:25:36","slug":"invalid-test-stalls-exoneration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/11\/invalid-test-stalls-exoneration\/","title":{"rendered":"“Invalid Test Stalls Exoneration”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fort Worth, Texas Star-Telegram<\/em> staff writer Mike Cochran reports<\/a>. Excerpt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FORT WORTH – It was going to be James Byrd’s day of vindication.<\/p>

After spending almost five years in prison for a crime that he and his older brother Donnie Johnson say Johnson committed, Byrd took a polygraph test Tuesday in the special crimes unit of the Tarrant County district attorney’s office to prove his innocence.<\/p>

It came a month after Johnson passed a polygraph to prove his guilt.<\/p>

Instead, Byrd’s test was deemed invalid because his blood pressure readings were too high and could not be stabilized. The next step, said Rick Holden, who administered both polygraphs, is for a doctor to examine Byrd and a new test to be administered in a more laboratorylike environment.<\/p>

Thus, another bizarre twist in a case that seemed like little more than a two-bit robbery gone sour, but over time turned into a twisted tale of injustice that sent Byrd to prison, broke a mother’s heart and shattered a large but close-knit family, as well as the relationship of two brothers who had been inseparable.<\/p>

On Tuesday, the brothers reconciled in a tearful reunion in the special crimes unit.<\/p>

“Hey, what’s up?” Byrd said, sitting at a table handcuffed.<\/p>

“How ya doin?” Johnson said as the brothers embraced.<\/p>

Both anticipated that the results of the polygraph test were a foregone conclusion.<\/p>

“I am relieved,” Johnson said before Holden’s evaluation. “I’ve been carrying this burden almost five years. I told him [Byrd] I was sorry that I had put him through this. … He said he accepted my apology and that he loved me. That felt good.”<\/p>

Byrd said: “What hurt me more than anything, my own brother, my own flesh and blood … he constantly lied.”<\/p>

The latest development doesn’t mean Byrd is indeed guilty; Holden speculated that the excitement of seeing his brother, taking the test and contemplating freedom may have been responsible for the elevated blood pressure readings.<\/p>

Nonetheless, the result delays the process of righting an alleged wrong and the goal of obtaining a full pardon for Byrd.<\/p>

For now, freedom is still a jailhouse dream.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth, Texas Star-Telegram staff writer Mike Cochran reports. Excerpt: FORT WORTH – It was going to be James Byrd’s day of vindication. After spending almost five years in prison for a crime that he and his older brother Donnie Johnson say Johnson committed, Byrd took a polygraph test Tuesday in the special crimes unit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[320],"class_list":{"0":"post-3490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-polygraph","7":"tag-texas","8":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3491,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3490\/revisions\/3491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}