An innocent man who spent 16 years in prison following a polygraph-induced false confession has been freed by DNA evidence. Those responsible for the polygraph interrogation of Jeffrey Mark Deskovic should be ashamed of themselves (and held personally liable for damages):


Quote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/nyregion/21dna.html September 21, 2006 DNA Evidence Frees a Man Imprisoned for Half His Life By FERNANDA SANTOS WHITE PLAINS, Sept. 20 — Jeffrey Mark Deskovic came of age in a maximum-security prison, doing time for a crime he did not commit. Sixteen years ago, Mr. Deskovic was convicted of raping, beating and strangling a Peekskill High School classmate in a jealous fit of rage. DNA evidence presented at his trial indicated that he was not the one who committed the murder, but the police testified that he had confessed. On Wednesday, after he fought exhaustive legal battles and wrote dozens of pleading letters that led him nowhere, Mr. Deskovic, 32, walked out of the Westchester County Courthouse an overjoyed if embittered man. “I was supposed to finish my education, to begin a career,” he said. “The time period to have a family, to spend time with my family, is lost. I lost all my friends. My family has become strangers to me. “There was a woman who I wanted to marry at the time that I was convicted, and I lost that too,” Mr. Deskovic added. “Given all that, I ask everybody: Would you be angry?” Among the people who Mr. Deskovic said refused to review his case is Jeanine F. Pirro, the former Westchester district attorney, who took office after his trial; she is now the Republican nominee for state attorney general. The freed inmate and his lawyer expressed outrage that Ms. Pirro had scheduled a news conference to call for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York just as Mr. Deskovic was being released Wednesday morning, but Ms. Pirro ended up canceling the event. Ms. Pirro’s successor, Janet DiFiore, agreed to run the evidence through a national DNA databank after she was approached in June by Barry Scheck, a director of the Innocence Project, which works to free the wrongly convicted. The decision to release Mr. Deskovic came after the DNA matched that of a man who is serving time for another Westchester murder. Ms. DiFiore declined to identify him but said he recently confessed to killing Angela Correa, 15, the girl Mr. Deskovic was convicted of killing, on Nov. 15, 1989. Mr. Scheck said that Mr. Deskovic was the 184th person nationwide to be exonerated because of DNA evidence since 1989, and that his case highlights the importance of having the authorities videotape interviews with suspects, as many police departments nationwide have begun to do. “We’ve learned a lot about false confessions in the past decade,” Mr. Scheck said at a news conference. “Videotaping of confessions and training of police officers can definitely lead to different results.” The case against Mr. Deskovic hinged largely on a confession he made after six hours of questioning in a small interrogation room in Brewster, where two Peekskill detectives took him for a polygraph test, according to court documents. Mr. Deskovic, a sophomore, and Ms. Correa, a freshman, were in two classes together. Both were quiet and did not have a lot of friends, according to his mother, Linda McGarr, and Ms. Correa’s stepfather, Pedro Rivera, who sat quietly in court to see Mr. Deskovic go free. Mr. Rivera met Mr. Deskovic for the first time at Ms. Correa’s wake, but saw him numerous times after that, he said. Mr. Deskovic went to church with the family, dined at their home and took Ms. Correa’s younger sister to the movies, he recalled. “Jeffrey cried a lot for Angela,” Mr. Rivera said. “He was very distraught.” The police in Peekskill said Mr. Deskovic’s behavior seemed odd. At his trial, investigators said they grew suspicious of Mr. Deskovic because he was late for school the day after Ms. Correa’s murder and seemed “overly distraught” about the death of a girl who was not his close friend. For two months, Mr. Deskovic denied having anything to do with Ms. Correa’s death. Finally, in late January 1990, he agreed to the polygraph test, which preceded the interrogation that led to his confession. “Believing in the criminal justice system and being fearful for myself, I told them what they wanted to hear,” Mr. Deskovic said, by way of explanation. “I thought it was all going to be O.K. in the end,” because he was sure that the DNA testing would show his innocence. In convicting Mr. Deskovic, the jury effectively chose to give more weight to his tearful confession than to the DNA and other scientific evidence. The conviction seemed to indicate that jurors believed the prosecution theory that semen found in Ms. Correa’s body was likely from a consensual sexual relationship with someone else. Many convicted criminals were compelled to give DNA samples in recent years, and the source of the semen in the victim’s body was apparently identified that way. Until such database comparisons were available, there was no way for Mr. Deskovic to disprove the prosecution’s theory, because there was no way to pinpoint whose semen it was. While in prison, Mr. Deskovic said, he lived "from appeal to appeal," trying not to think of the 15-years-to-life sentence that hung over him. He finished high school, and earned an associate’s degree. A year into his sentence, he converted to Islam. “It was a major factor in surviving prison in terms of my mental sanity,’’ he said. After his release, Mr. Deskovic went with his mother, two aunts and two uncles for lunch at an Italian restaurant here. And for the first time, he talked on a cellphone. “That was pretty weird,’’ he said afterward. “I was looking for the little holes where you talk into, and couldn’t find them.’’

An article published by the Journal News of White Plains, New York identifies the interrogator who extracted a false confession from Jeffrey Mark Deskovic as Thomas McIntyre. It is not clear whether McIntyre was himself the polygrapher involved:


Quote:

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060921/NEWS07/609210361/1023 Innocent Peekskill man freed after nearly 16 years in prison By JONATHAN BANDLER THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original Publication: September 21, 2006) Timeline • Nov. 17, 1989: The half-naked body of 15-year-old Angela Correa is discovered in woods behind Hillcrest Elementary School in Peekskill. • Jan. 25, 1990: Jeffrey Deskovic, 16, a fellow sophomore at Peekskill High School, is arrested on rape and murder charges in connection with Correa's death. • Dec. 7, 1990: Jury convicts Deskovic on its third day of deliberations. • Jan. 18, 1991: State Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Colabella sentences Deskovic to the minimum, 15 years to life in state prison. • Oct. 30, 2005: Eligible for release for the first time, Deskovic is turned down by the parole board. • Monday: Westchester County lab confirms DNA match to national database between semen evidence recovered from Correa’s body and a different inmate in New York state prison. • Yesterday: Jeffrey Deskovic walks out of Westchester County Courthouse a free man after judge throws out his conviction and sentence. WHITE PLAINS — Jeffrey Deskovic walked free for the first time in nearly 16 years yesterday after his conviction was thrown out in the rape and murder of a Peekskill High School classmate. The 32-year-old was cleared in the death of Angela Correa because another man confessed to the crime after more sophisticated DNA testing linked him to the girl's death. Authorities would not identify the suspect but said he is serving a life sentence for his conviction in an unrelated Westchester County homicide. "There was a long time that I felt this day would never come," Deskovic said after leaving the Westchester County Courthouse. "It hasn't hit me yet. I'm still waiting to wake up." Deskovic's conviction and 15-year-to-life prison sentence were vacated in a brief court hearing by acting state Supreme Court Justice Richard Molea at the request of lawyers from the Innocence Project, a legal clinic of Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School that has now exonerated 184 inmates through DNA testing. "We are here today to correct, as best we can, a terrible injustice that was done to Jeffrey Deskovic 17 years ago," said one of the lawyers, Nina Morrison. "We are humbled by what Mr. Deskovic has gone through." Assistant District Attorney Patricia Murphy said prosecutors joined in the motion "unequivocally" when it was clear the evidence pointed to someone else, and they planned to charge the new suspect. The gallery of relatives and law school students associated with the Innocence Project broke into loud applause when Molea then ordered Deskovic's release. The former inmate, wearing a full beard he has grown since converting to Islam, slumped in his chair, hugged Morrison and sat back down before spending a few moments with his mother, aunts and uncles. Deskovic then walked outside and spoke to the media for nearly two hours, seemingly offering all the things he wanted to say when reporters were ignoring his pleas from prison. "I'm not standing here before you because the system worked. I'm standing here in front of you despite the system," he said. He expressed resentment at police who forced him to falsely confess, a prosecutor who did not drop the case when DNA results suggested he should, jurors who ignored the forensic evidence and the judge who could have set aside the verdict but didn't. And he remained frustrated by the years of failure at the appellate level that ended only after the Innocence Project took on his case. "I hit a wall and became very depressed," he said. He was asked if he was angry. "The people I considered to be friends all left me. Prison is isolating. My family has become strangers to me," he said, adding that he lost the chance to marry a woman he loved. "I don't need to answer. Just answer yourself. Would any of you be angry?" He said he invented defense mechanisms for dealing with prison life, played lots of chess and wrote much of a book, "Inside the Mind of the Wrongfully Convicted." And after years of lousy prison food, he was looking forward to his first meal on the outside — mussels in fra diavolo sauce. At Graziella's a few blocks from the courthouse later, he got his seafood and a Neopolitan for dessert — improvised because it wasn't on the menu. Surrounded by his family and several Innocence Project lawyers, he found one vestige of prison life he could not shake. They wanted to put him in the center of the room, but Deskovic chose the end of the table where his back would be against the window so nobody could walk up on him from behind. His mother, Linda McGarr, said she expects it will take some time for him to get acclimated. "My prayers were answered. I never gave up hope because I knew he was innocent," she said. "I'm just so happy to have him back. He's gone through so much, and so have I." Deskovic spoke of never getting back the years he lost, though he managed to get an associate degree and was working toward a bachelor's degree in psychology. He is considering going to law school but only if he can work for the Innocence Project, and might also try to become a psychotherapist. He was looking forward to sitting on a porch last night to watch the sunset, without having to worry about "lights-out" time or where he had to be in prison. And Deskovic gave condolences to Correa's family, and thanked family members for never rushing to judgment about him, as others had. "I lost a large part of my life, which makes me a victim. They lost a daughter, my heart goes out to them." The girl's partially clad body was discovered Nov. 17, 1989, under leaves and twigs in the woods behind Peekskill's Hillcrest Elementary School. The 15-year-old sophomore had been reported missing two nights earlier when she hadn't returned home after going to take pictures for a school photography class. Police soon focused their attention on Deskovic, then 16, and concluded that he was obsessed with the dead girl and may have been her killer. They claimed he constantly went to them, offering information, and knew some key details that had not been disclosed. Two months later, he agreed to take a polygraph test. After several hours, when he was convinced he had done poorly, he broke down, telling Detective Thomas McIntyre that he had hit Correa over the head with a Gatorade bottle and smothered her. Before he finally confessed, he lay crying in the fetal position under a desk. He said yesterday that he confessed only because the police were not going to let him go, threatened to hurt him and promised he wouldn't be arrested if he said what he did to her. "I felt my life was in danger," he recalled. "I didn't think they were going to stop until I told them what they wanted to hear." Before trial, prosecutors learned that DNA evidence from Correa did not match Deskovic. But they went ahead, relying on the confession. The trial in the fall of 1990 ended when the jury convicted Deskovic of second-degree murder and first-degree rape. The following month, state Supreme Court Justice Nicholas Colabella sentenced Deskovic to 15 years to life. The prosecutor, George Bolen, who retired last month after a 30-year career in the District Attorney's Office, could not be reached for comment. McIntyre also could not be reached. He retired in Peekskill in the early 1990s. Peekskill Police Chief Eugene Tumolo, who supervised the department's detective bureau during the Deskovic investigation, yesterday defended his department and McIntyre, and called the situation a "very unfortunate circumstance." "We're certainly gratified that justice has finally been completed in this case with respect to Jeffrey Deskovic being exonerated and released," Tumolo said. "I wanted to go on record that this had been a sensitive investigation from the outset. ... There was no coercion, nothing inappropriate or illegal done on behalf of police," he said. "All the facts were brought forward and presented to the jury at trial," he said. "He was found guilty, which was an unfortunate occurrence. A further unfortunate occurrence was that the appellate judges agreed." Morrison and Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, said it was remarkable how quickly the case turned around in just a few months. They credited Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore for pushing the county forensics lab to test the DNA samples that had been saved. DiFiore was not in the courtroom but she said later that prosecutors had fulfilled their legal obligations in the case over the years but that more had to be done. "This case is really about what our moral obligation is," she said. "This was a very righteously prosecuted and investigated case. It's a very dramatic reminder to all of us that the system is not infallible."

George,

This is a very interesting article.   Interesting enough that I wanted to respond, which I rarely do.  This is what interested me most about the article:

"Police soon focused their attention on Deskovic, then 16, and concluded that he was obsessed with the dead girl and may have been her killer. They claimed he constantly went to them, offering information, and knew some key details that had not been disclosed."

"Two months later, he agreed to take a polygraph test. After several hours, when he was convinced he had done poorly, he broke down, telling Detective Thomas McIntyre that he had hit Correa over the head with a Gatorade bottle and smothered her."

The detectives claimed that Deskovic "knew some key details that had not been disclosed." Later, he was "convinced he had done poorly" on the polygraph test, so he "broke down" and confessed.

I would sure like to know the actual results of that polygraph test.  If he passed it, then the detectives must have been so convinced of their case against him, due to his knowledge of details that only the killer would know, that they ignored the polygraph results and pursued the interrogation, using the polygraph as a prop in spite of the actual results.  Then again, if he actually failed the polygraph, then it makes me wonder whether he had guilty knowledge of undisclosed details of the crime, as claimed by the detectives.  Perhaps he wasn't the actual rapist/murderer, but perhaps he was an accomplice or witness.

Remember, the jury had to be quite sure, based on the facts of the case, not just an allegedly forced confession from a teenager, to ultimately convict him.  Also remember that the appellate judges agreed with the jury.

I know this is an ANTI-polygraph website, but perhaps we don't know enough about this case to assume that the polygraph failed, or that this "victim" was completely innocent in this crime despite the lack of his own DNA evidence.

Sure, I'm viewing this case through the eyes of the PRO-polygraph side, but it ought to make even some of the ANTI- folks wonder a little bit, don't you think?

LieBabyCryBaby,

This post in my opinion is your best to date, and commendable for being of substance. And you bring up some good points in your questions. I will let George address  the issues, since I will not or could not  speak for him.  But my analysis on the points  are, you have a 16 year old teenager, being interrogated by two professional detectives that are interrogators. Not a fair match by any means. And they grilled him from this story for over 7 hours. I could make this kid believe he shot Jimmy Hoffa after seven hours.  This is a case very similar to the one from Escondido, California, there the brother and his friends were interrogated for 16 hours and eventually confessed to killing his sister. And was later proven to be innocent. The sister was killed by a drifter that was in the neighborhood. But your point that possibility that they ignored the Polygraph results points to its inherent danger. And as an interrogation prop it has the ability to make the weak break and confess to anything.  Now as far as him knowing things that only the killer could have known, he knew her for quite some time. Not a mystery there. I do believe that the detectives were also quite a bit overzealous and looking to wrap this up ASAP. Bottom line is still the polygraph one way or the other, helped put an innocent away. And now I hope this guy has a great lawyer, as one big payday is coming for him.  And again good post.

Regards ..

Matt Elzweig has posted an article about the case of Jeffrey Mark Deskovic in his blog, A Downtown Reporter:

http://adowntownreporter.blogspot.com/2006/11/someone-elses-time-jeff-deskovic-spent.html

Westchester County, New York District Attorney Janet DiFiore has released a "Report on the Conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic." A copy is attached to this message as a 232 kb PDF file. In 1989, following a false positive polygraph outcome, Deskovic, then a highschool student, falsely confessed to the rape and murder of classmate Angela Correa and as a consequence spent the next 16 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. The Deskovic case is a prime example of why (as the report also recommends in violent felony cases), all interrogations should be videotaped.

The polygrapher who examined Deskovic is identified in the report as an Inspector Stephens (whose first name is not disclosed). Although Stephens incorrectly found Deskovic deceptive, it was ultimately another investigator who secured Deskovic's false confession ("...after Stephens's low-key questioning failed to elicit the desired confession, [Detective Thomas] McIntyre took over the interrogation and, following one final confrontation, Deskovic confessed" -- p. 16 [p. 19 of the PDF]).

Regarding the polygraph interrogation of Jeffrey Deskovic, the report states in relevant part (footnotes omitted):


Quote:

On January 25, Deskovic voluntarily submitted to a polygraph, as requested by the police. He arrived at police headquarters alone at about 9:30am, without either a lawyer, his mother, a friend or family member. He was driven to Brewster, N.Y. by Detectives McIntyre and Levine. The polygraph was administered by police investigator Stephens. Deskovic was questioned sporadically until 5pm, at which time Deskovic asked for Det. McIntyre, after being informed that he had failed the exam. Deskovic "confessed" to McIntyre that he killed Angela, fell on the floor in a fetal position, where McIntyre physically comforted him by holding Deskovic's head on his lap and rubbing his back. During the course of eliciting "background" information, Stephens learned that Deskovic "sometimes hears voices and they make me to [sic] things I shouldn't." The entire day's session was not tape recorded. --p. 2 (p. 5 of the PDF) ... Tunnel vision continued to operate. As the police became increasingly convinced of Deskovic's culpability, the tactics they employed against him made him appear more guilty in their eyes. At times, they were highly confrontational, accusing him of the crime and sharply rejecting his professions of innocence. On other occasions, they were collegial, seemingly inviting this teenager to play a critical role in their investigation. These tactics, themselves the product of the narrowing police focus on Deskovic, laid the groundwork for a false confession. Ultimately, detectives drove Deskovic to another town and interrogated him in a 10x 10 room for hours against the pressure-filled backdrop of a polygraph test. They proceeded as they did because, by then, they were fully convinced of Deskovic's guilt. That their target was a psychologically vulnerable sixteen-year-old boy, who had no previous experience with the justice system, was of no moment under these circumstances. On the day of the polygraph, they acted for the avowed purpose of getting a confession. The tactics they employed were designed for this purpose and, although these tactics were left largely unexamined by the finders of fact because the interrogation was unrecorded, they succeeded. -- p. 9 (p. 12 of PDF) ... Deskovic's January 25th statement was far and away the most important evidence at the trial. Without it, the State had no case against him. He would never have been prosecuted for killing Correa. He would never have been convicted. He  would never have spent a day - let alone 16 years - in prison. Reasonable minds can differ about the credibility of the police explanations for sporadically recording Deskovic's January 10th statement. No similar controversy exists about the police rationale for failure to record any of the January 25th polygraph examination. The police simply offered none. -- p. 14 (p. 17 of PDF) ... Nothing whatsoever prevented the Peekskill detectives from recording the January 25th session in its entirety. The polygraph room was equipped with a monitoring device, which allowed others to listen in an adjoining room. Detectives Levine and McIntyre and Lieutenant Tumulo were present in that room and heard everything through the intercom. There is no indication that the acoustics were anything less than acceptable. The setting thus seems uniquely suited to tape recording. Such a recording would have allowed jurors to hear for themselves precisely what Deskovic said and to comprehend fully the circumstances surrounding his saying it. No recording was made, however, because as Levine and McIntyre testified at trial, they simply left their recorders behind when they left for Brewster. No additional explanation was offered, either by the police or the prosecution. --p. 15 (p. 18 of PDF) ... The Deskovic case unmistakably demonstrates the desirability of videotaping the entire interrogation of all persons suspected of involvement in a violent felony. Deskovic was questioned by detectives at length, on multiple occasions and over many days. On a very few occasions a voice tape recorder was used, as discussed at length, previously. The two most inculpatory statements in the case -- the portion, of the January 10 statement during which Deskovic drew his diagram of the three crime scenes and the January 25 polygraph exam -- were not recorded, although the opportunity to record those statements plainly existed. That other statements were recorded, in whole or in part, makes the failure to record the key statements appear deliberate or tactical. By turning the recorder on-and-off, the interrogation process suggests selectivity and opportunity to record only incriminating statements. It is a generally unrecognized phenomenon that innocent people have confessed to crimes that they did not commit. Videotaping all interrogations of violent felony suspects not only may improve interrogation techniques but, more importantly, will aid the jury or other fact finder to identify a false confession. Videotaping custodial interrogations is not only feasible, it is being used in an increasing number of jurisdictions as a way to protect the innocent and ensure the conviction of the guilty. Thanks to the many DNA exonerations over the last decade, the problem of false confessions by the innocent is now well documented. In fact, in approximately 24% of the 180 post-conviction DNA exoneration cases to date, the wrongful convictions were based, in large part, on confessions, admissions, or inculpatory statements that DNA evidence later proved to be false. Special caution must be exercised when a juvenile is interrogated by the police. Deskovic was only sixteen years-old at the time of his confession. Social science research indicates that juveniles, possessing marked developmental differences from their adult counterparts, are far more susceptible to interrogative suggestibility and thereby to confess falsely to crimes they did not commit. This conclusion is supported by a range of research, which reveals that adolescents have difficulty understanding lexical language, including legal terminology, have a higher susceptibility to negative feedback, present differences in decision-making, present behaviors more often than adults that are considered "deceptive" by interrogators, and have more negative responses to situational risk factors, such as stress, the presence of authority figures, physical custody and isolation, and confrontation, than adults. These factors in isolation or taken together place adolescents at a higher risk for confessing to a crime they did not commit. Videotaping the interrogation is a prudent way to minimize wrongful convictions founded on false confessions. --pp. 33-34 (36-37 of PDF)

No one becomes a polygraph examiner or police interrogator in the hope of obtaining false confessions and sending the innocent to prison. To the polygraph examiners who follow this message board: please take the lessons of the Jeffrey Deskovic case to heart rather than seeking rationalizations for what happened. Read the full report and learn from it. If you're not already doing so, start recording your examinations from beginning to end, and don't say or do anything in the polygraph suite that you'd be embarrassed or ashamed to have seen and heard by a judge and jury.

---

I wanted to let everyone know that I registered to this site just so I could voice my opinion on this story. I've been visiting this site for about 3 weeks now. In particular, I wanted to address the post of LieBabyCryBaby.

I'm probably not as anti-polygraph as the other people on this site [yet], but I'm quite ahgast by your suggestion that Deskovic was only an alleged "victim." The theory that Mr. Deskovic might have been an accomplice/witness to the murder of the school girl is simply ridiculous.

Believing he is in fact guilty, that would mean that when he confessed, he was secretly protecting his partner in crime by taking full responsibility, only to exaust all his appeal options. Years later, he then decides to back stab his partner by requesting the DNA scan of the semen found in the victims vagina, knowing full well that it will implicate the man he was protecting. Then, his accomplice, now confronted with this evidence due to the betrayal of Deskovic, decides to protect deskovic by taking on the guilt for the murder immediately after Deskovic betrayal, and is secretly protecting Deskovic at this very moment as he pleads guilty to the rape and murder.

That is quite simply the most ludacris tall tale I have ever heard! Under normal circumstances, I would simply poke fun at you for making absurd theories. Given the suffering that Deskovic has already endured, you owe him an apology.

Furthermore, the report on this failure of the justice system explains that Deskovic foolishly tried to provide the police with evidence, as if he was in some kid detective movie. If he was in league with a 30 year old man to rape and terrorize his community, his actions would have certainly gotten him an asswooping from his master and role model. The accomplice theory was unsupported when the DA presented it to the jury, and now it's simply slanderous. In all seriousness, you should appoligize. Think it through next time. This was not your best post.

After having read the report, I'm skocked by the revelation that 24% of false convictions are due to false confessions. Indeed, the report is wise to recommend an inquiry into this phenoma. Certainly in this case, there is good reason to investigate the polygraphs role in the false confession. I say this because it seems to me that Deskovic was far more resistent to the police department's aggressive interrogation techniques than the report gives him credit for. Yes, he confessed after a 5 hour interrogation on the Jan 25, but he also went through a 4 hour interrogation on Jan 10 and didn't confess. The investigation involved hostile interrogation techniques througout december and January, but it is noted that Deskovic passionately resisted the police accusations of guilt. Up until the polygraph, he seemed quite capable of protecting himself despit naivly believing the police were his friends. Then the polygraph was called upon like some Holy Hand Grenade that ultimately proved to be the ONE thing that Deskovic couldn't handle. In march, he had to be put in a hospital because he was considered a suicide risk. "Suicide risk!?" Did I read the report right?? OH MY GOD!! [take a deep breath brettski, slow deep breaths]

So, was he on the brink of cracking and would have confessed on the 25th with or without the polygraph results, or is there something fundamentally tramatizing about the polygraph technique? I don't know, but society NEEDS to know. The scary thing is, if I didn't know what I know now, I probably would have made the same verdict as the jury. I can pass no judgement on them.

Brettski, you'll find that logical thinking is not the strong suit of the polygraph community.  Strong armed tactics, intimindation, and brow beating are the order of the day for them.  

They live on lies--and not in the way that lumberjacks live on trees.  Polygraphers spend their lives creating lies and honing them to perfection.  They eat lies, they breath lies, until their very existence becomes a living lie, every moment of it.

They'll try to fool you, to get you to accept their bullshit.  They'll try to make you think that you're defective for not "understanding" their alleged answers.  There's something wrong with you, they'll say, if you don't trust them.  Don't believe it.  Pursue their lies to the source, back them into a corner and throttle them mercilessly until you drag the truth from them.  

If you fail to pursue the truth, you risk having a skewed view of reality--which is exactly what the polygraphers want you to have and is exactly what they themselves have.  They may not be able to deceive us, but they have largely deceived themselves.  They can't fact the truth about who and what they are.  That's why they leave when their lies start falling apart, they fear what will happen to them if their carefully constructed cage of deception is breached.  

Like I said, their very existence is a lie.  There is scarecely a moment in their lives that they do not prove themselves to be either a fool--if they really believe this crap--or a liar and a hypocrit--if they don't.

In the opening post of this thread, I expressed the view that those responsible for the polygraph interrogation of Jeffrey Mark Deskovic should be held personally liable for damages. This may well come to pass. Jonathan Bandler of the White Plains Journal News reports that Deskovic's polygrapher, Daniel Stephens, is among those named in a federal lawsuit:


Quote:

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070918/NEWS02/709180419/1018 Deskovic files federal lawsuit over his 15-year wrongful imprisonment By JONATHAN BANDLER THE JOURNAL NEWS (Original publication: September 18, 2007) WHITE PLAINS - Peekskill police and a Westchester medical examiner fabricated evidence that led to the wrongful conviction of Jeffrey Deskovic in the 1989 murder of a Peekskill High School classmate, a federal lawsuit filed today alleges. Deskovic was exonerated one year ago this week in the rape and slaying of Angela Correa when the real killer was identified, but not before he served more than 15 years in state prison. The lawsuit excoriates police and prosecutors, particularly because authorities knew from the outset that semen recovered from the victim did not come from Deskovic. "Mr. Deskovic's wrongful conviction and years of wrongful incarceration, despite the fact that police and prosecutors knew of the DNA evidence and other clearly exculpatory facts, was the direct result of a veritable perfect storm of misconduct by virtually every actor at every stage of his investigation and prosecution," says the lawsuit by the Manhattan firm of Cochran, Neufeld and Scheck. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court does not seek specific monetary damages. It names Westchester and Putnam counties; the city of Peekskill; four Peekskill detectives including the current chief, Eugene Tumolo; the Putnam County sheriff's deputy who conducted a lie-detector test of Deskovic that forced his false confession; Westchester medical examiners Louis Roh and Millard Hyland; and a New York state corrections officer who allegedly fondled Deskovic and physically abused him while he was imprisoned. ... Correa's body was found Nov. 17, 1989, in a wooded area near Griffens Pond behind Hillcrest Elementary School. The 15-year-old sophomore had been raped, strangled and beaten two days earlier after leaving her Main Street home to take pictures for a photography class. Deskovic, who had turned 16 just a few weeks earlier, soon became a suspect after detectives learned he was particularly distraught about Correa's death even though he had only a passing acquaintance with the girl. The lawsuit alleges that the lead detectives, Thomas McIntyre and David Levine, coerced Deskovic into a false confession after interviewing him several times and leading him to believe he was helping their investigation. They allegedly falsified police reports to hide that they fed Deskovic information about the killing or that the details he gave them had not been concealed from the public. They also coerced Deskovic into continuously talking to them after he had invoked his right to a lawyer, the lawsuit alleges. The confession after weeks of denials came after a lengthy interrogation on Jan. 25, 1990, when the detectives took Deskovic to the Brewster office of Daniel Stephens, a Putnam County sheriff's deputy who moonlighted as a polygraph examiner. The session was meant to force a confession by convincing Deskovic he had failed the lie detector test, his lawyers contend. He eventually told McIntyre that he hit Correa in the head with a bottle and smothered her, although he broke into tears and curled up in the fetal position after they pressed him to repeat his confession.

George,

As predicted the payday will be substantial !  The only thing I can think of for this is the Clint Eastwood movie, "Hang'm High". I wonder if they can hear the scaffold being build. There is no where to run on this one !!

Regards ....

George,

This should provide an extremely robust thread for our new found friends, Ludovico, Wonder_Women, MysteryMeat, and last but not least ParaDiddle. So what are your opinions on this particular aspect of your profession, folks. Did you pass the hat to cover the legal fees your kindred polygrapher is going to face. Inquiring minds want to know ?

Regards ....

[quote author=George W. Maschke link=1158809927/0#0 date=1158820727]An innocent man who spent 16 years in prison following a polygraph-induced false confession has been freed by DNA evidence. Those responsible for the polygraph interrogation of Jeffrey Mark Deskovic should be ashamed of themselves (and held personally liable for damages):

[quote][size=13]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/nyregion/21dna.html


I wonder if he also suffered polygraph induced diarrhea? Now you have gone as far as to invalidate your military training as an interrogater----in that a false confession from an interrogation is a false confession from an interrogation, period. If the cop were wearing a bow tie, than the confession wouldn't be labeled a "bow-tie induced false confession." Interrogation =accusation. Either way ya slice it, cops who accuse without savvy will get false confessions.

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2007 at 1:26pm:

I wonder if he also suffered polygraph induced diarrhea? Now you have gone as far as to invalidate your military training as an interrogater----in that a false confession from an interrogation is a false confession from an interrogation, period. If the cop were wearing a bow tie, than the confession wouldn't be labeled a "bow-tie induced false confession." Interrogation =accusation. Either way ya slice it, cops who accuse without savvy will get false confessions.

ParaDiddle,

So lets re-evaluate this then, Its the cops fault, and the polygrapher has no duplicity at all. In your honest polygrapher opinion this person being induced to a confession is nothing more than a simple mistake. Collateral damage in the grand plan that the polygraph and polygraphers are here to help you, and its just the cost of doing business. Lets see 16 years in prison for a cascading failure of the worst kind. Destroying a persons life, with a machine touted with 98 % validity, by many members of your profession. Please do discuss and define this problem set so all can understand. Because with the right environment and tool, I could have made this kid, think he killed Hoffa and buried him in the Meadowlands. I really want to know the scientific principles that you and this polygrapher used. That if ever faced again with a polygraph, I can feel assured that I am getting the best polygrapher available with sound scientific objectivity.

Regards ......

The report states that the men conducted a "lengthy interrogation." I have never ran a test that lasted longer than 3 1/2 hrs-4 hrs in length. Cops have interrogated for up to 18 hours in shameful cases. There are differences in the dynamics of the two methods, regardless of what you state. I might know a thing or two Eos, so take my word.

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2007 at 4:46pm:

The report states that the men conducted a "lengthy interrogation." I have never ran a test that lasted longer than 3 1/2 hrs-4 hrs in length. Cops have interrogated for up to 18 hours in shameful cases. There are differences in the dynamics of the two methods, regardless of what you state. I might know a thing or two Eos, so take my word.

Paradiddle,

Nice deflection, but we really need to focus on this. So it is still your position that the polygrapher had no hand in this mess, that his maximum 3.5 - 4 hour interrogation was just noise. Its not like most polygraphers, are not interrogators / investigative agents. A change of clothes does not change the obvious.  

Take your word for it ? That  remarks reminds of a revised smart remark, "I am a polygrapher and I am here to help you !!".  Where are your facts. We all need to understand how this polygraphers testing time, contributed to this systemic failure. A polygraph pathology as it were.  I am sure you can get the info and charts from your brethern polygraphers. Please do post your report, as we all wish to be impressed with your investigative and reporting skills. I am waiting to see the thing you know and the second thing too. Should be quite illuminating.

Best Regards ....

I never said the polygrapher "had no hand" in this, it is just that when you hear of marathon interrogations----some even lasting days, usually the examiner has left the building long before detectives lose their fucking minds. I would like more details. The victim may have passed his test and the detectives may have decided to "not have it." You know exactly 2 things about what actually happened there----jack and shit. Since that era, confessions are not as valuable (for good reason) and/or "end all" when placed before a triar of fact---due not to polygraph interrogations, but garden variety 12 hour interrogation "confessions."  Read a book once in a while, will ya?

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2007 at 8:42pm:

I never said the polygrapher "had no hand" in this, it is just that when you hear of marathon interrogations----some even lasting days, usually the examiner has left the building long before detectives lose their fucking minds. I would like more details. The victim may have passed his test and the detectives may have decided to "not have it." You know exactly 2 things about what actually happened there----jack and shit. Since that era, confessions are not as valuable (for good reason) and/or "end all" when placed before a triar of fact---due not to polygraph interrogations, but garden variety 12 hour interrogation "confessions."  Read a book once in a while, will ya?

ParaDiddle,

I do read, everything available !!!

Should be quite interesting to see this play out .....

Regards .....

EosJupiter wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2007 at 10:21pm:

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 3rd, 2007 at 8:42pm: I never said the polygrapher "had no hand" in this, it is just that when you hear of marathon interrogations----some even lasting days, usually the examiner has left the building long before detectives lose their fucking minds. I would like more details. The victim may have passed his test and the detectives may have decided to "not have it." You know exactly 2 things about what actually happened there----jack and shit. Since that era, confessions are not as valuable (for good reason) and/or "end all" when placed before a triar of fact---due not to polygraph interrogations, but garden variety 12 hour interrogation "confessions."  Read a book once in a while, will ya? ParaDiddle, I do read, everything available !!! Should be quite interesting to see this play out ..... Regards .....

I believe Amazon has this book available;

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Every-Session-Count-Getting/dp/157224190X/ref=sr_1_6/104-8840978-0256710?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191452913&sr=1-6

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2007 at 11:14pm:

I believe Amazon has this book available: http://www.amazon.com/Make-Every-Session-Count-Getting/dp/157224190X/ref=sr_1_6/104-8840978-0256710?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191452913&sr=1-6

Paradiddle,

Since we are sharing literary recommendations ... try these two ... and actually understand what are the real principles on why your polygraph works.  And the bio-chemical activators that cause the reactions you so love to graph with your machine.
Now we can start our own book club !!!

http://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Neuroscience-Second-Michael-Gazzaniga/dp/0393977773/ref=sr_1_15/103-1963935-1189459?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191454322&sr=1-15

http://www.amazon.com/Number-Sense-Mind-Creates-Mathematics/dp/0195132408/ref=pd_sim_b_4/103-1963935-1189459

Regards ....

Despite the desperate desires to turn this into a poly bashing fest,

the known facts seem to be these,

• Angela Correa (age 15) was raped, beaten, and stranggled on 11/15/89
  
• Jeffery Deskovic was identified as a suspect
  
• a polygraph was conducted
  
• Jeffry Deskovic did not confess to the polygraph examiner
  
• he is reported to have confessed to a police interviewer after what is described in the NY times as a lengthy, 5 or 6 hour, interview
  
• Jeffry Deskovic was convicted on his confession and was incarcerated for 16 years
  
• DNA exonerated Jeffrey Deskovic as the source of semen obtained from the victim, Angela Correa
  
• DNA matched that of a man who is serving time for another Westchester murder
  
• The murder was not named in the NY times article, but is reported to have confessed to killing Angela Correa
  

We also know there is no continuous recording of the polygraph or interview.

Speculations about the test itself, are just that - speculations.

FERNANDA SANTOS NY Times 9/21/06:
Quote:

Mr. Scheck said that Mr. Deskovic was the 184th person nationwide to be exonerated because of DNA evidence since 1989, and that his case highlights the importance of having the authorities videotape interviews with suspects, as many police departments nationwide have begun to do. “We’ve learned a lot about false confessions in the past decade,” Mr. Scheck said at a news conference. “Videotaping of confessions and training of police officers can definitely lead to different results.”

FERNANDA SANTOS NY Times 9/21/06:
Quote:

In convicting Mr. Deskovic, the jury effectively chose to give more weight to his tearful confession than to the DNA and other scientific evidence. The conviction seemed to indicate that jurors believed the prosecution theory that semen found in Ms. Correa’s body was likely from a consensual sexual relationship with someone else. Many convicted criminals were compelled to give DNA samples in recent years, and the source of the semen in the victim’s body was apparently identified that way. Until such database comparisons were available, there was no way for Mr. Deskovic to disprove the prosecution’s theory, because there was no way to pinpoint whose semen it was.

JONATHAN BANDLER THE JOURNAL NEWS 9/21/2006:
Quote:

Before trial, prosecutors learned that DNA evidence from Correa did not match Deskovic. But they went ahead, relying on the confession.

It was not the polygraph that put this young man in prison for so long. The polygraph is just a test. Without looking at the data we don't really know anything except what we have read about that test. There are many more powerful factors here than the polygraph test.

Matt Elzweig, Our Town Downtown 11/13/2006:
Quote:

Who knows if Jeff Deskovic would have eventually gotten out by virtue of the fact that the old DNA technology had excluded him as a suspect when compared to the DNA found on the victim, but most important to getting him out of prison was the NY State DNA databank, a state version of the FBI’s CODIS (Combined DNA Index System), which was not fully operational until 1998. With it, it suddenly became possible to test Deskovic’s DNA against a huge database of offenders. This is how Steven Cunningham, who actually raped and killed Angela Correa, was found.

At the time he admitted to killing Angela Correa, Steven Cunningham was reportedly incarcerated for another murder which occurred after Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted.

We do not know whether Steven Cunningham had been identified as a suspect or person of interest during the investigation of Angela Correa's murder.

Absolutely no-one with any sense of human decency can take any pleasure in this series of tragedies.

JONATHAN BANDLER THE JOURNAL NEWS 9/21/2006:
Quote:

Morrison and Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, said it was remarkable how quickly the case turned around in just a few months. They credited Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore for pushing the county forensics lab to test the DNA samples that had been saved. DiFiore was not in the courtroom but she said later that prosecutors had fulfilled their legal obligations in the case over the years but that more had to be done. "This case is really about what our moral obligation is," she said. "This was a very righteously prosecuted and investigated case. It's a very dramatic reminder to all of us that the system is not infallible."

wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2007 at 6:43am:

No one becomes a polygraph examiner or police interrogator in the hope of obtaining false confessions and sending the innocent to prison. To the polygraph examiners who follow this message board: please take the lessons of the Jeffrey Deskovic case to heart rather than seeking rationalizations for what happened. Read the full report and learn from it. If you're not already doing so, start recording your examinations from beginning to end, and don't say or do anything in the polygraph suite that you'd be embarrassed or ashamed to have seen and heard by a judge and jury.

No disagreement with that.

We do know that factors associated with false confessions include young age, lengthy confrontational interviews, developmental or psychological difficulties, and of course, torture.

Jeffrey Deskovic is described by reporters as a youth with psychological, social or developmental difficulties, but the details are unclear. He is reported to have told the investigator that the sometimes heard voices that made him do things he shouldn't.


Brettski wrote on Jul 13^th, 2007 at 3:51am:

After having read the report, I'm skocked by the revelation that 24% of false convictions are due to false confessions.

Be a little careful. The report doesn't say 24% of false convictions; it say 24% of the 180 false convictions that were later overturned by DNA evidence. Its very important, and very interesting, but we don't know exactly how that figure generalizes to false convictions as a whole.

Banging the drum for your personal satisfaction re "polygraph interrogation" is self-serving. This case is not really about the polygraph.

So,

Try, people, not to take so much personal pleasure in these persons' tremendous misfortunes.

A young girl was raped and killed, a family lost a daughter, and a young man lost 16 years of his life - a reminder that this is serious work.

l

Ludovico,

You will get not get an argument that the murder and rape of this young person is truly sad. I feel for the family and even after all this time believe that they still must grieve.  Injury  to children is the most abherrent of behaviors. And punishment should be swift and severe. But two wrongs don't make a right.

Diversion from the thread again ... stay on point.

The bottom line is that the over zealousness of the investigative process put a young man in jail for 16 years. Punished for nothing more than not having the psychological/ emotional/ physical stamina to resist professional interrogators, because their hunches told them this kid was guilty. The polygrapher is included, and is as much the cause for this egregious miscarriage of justice. The burden placed on this kid during a polygraph exam must have been immense to cause the mind to resort to fetal position protection. We know who he (the polygrapher) is, why don't you get him to come on the board, through your polygrapher connections. Give him space to present his side of the story. Always 2 sides to every story. Getting his story and inputs would be of great interest. And from connections within the Innocence Project, there are more of these cases coming.

Regards .....

EOS,

Neither you nor anyone else can prove the polygraph caused this miscarriage of justice, and its self-serving of you to continue to suggest the polygraph caused this tragedy.

I don't disagree with taking a lesson about the need for conscientious and accurate policework, and recorded interviews.

Give it a rest.

Certainly there was more involved in Jeffrey Deskovic's false confession (and wrongful confession) than just the polygraph. But Paradiddle's suggestion that the polygraph played no more a role in it than the polygrapher's wearing a bowtie would have is an example of precisely the kind of rationalization against which I warned.

Let us not lose sight of the fact that the interrogation that led to Deskovic's false confession began as a polygraph "test." Deskovic was innocent so he should have passed, right? But presumably he didn't. It appears that the polygraph failed spectacularly in Deskovic's case. To the extent that Deskovic's interrogators believed in the pseudoscience of polygraphy, they may well have interrogated him more harshly than they would have had he not "failed" this scientifically baseless test.

George,

There you go turning this thing to some self-serving purpose again. A girl, Angela Correa, died in a truly awful manner. No one now disputes Jeffrey Deskovic's innocence. But your shifting this around to a polygraph issue is not very compassionate at all. The report prepared for Janet DiFiore identifies an alarming number of human failings in this investigation and conviction.

All of those people (Angela Correa's family, Jeffrey Deskovic, and his family) deserve some peace and resolution. Stirring things here does not help them, but serves only yourselves.

It is vitally important to learn from this, but keep it humane, will ya.

l

I'm not "shifting this around to a polygraph issue." Clearly, the polygraph is not solely responsible for Jeffrey Deskovic's plight, and I never suggested that it was. But this is, among other things, a polygraph issue: the polygraph played an important role in the injustice inflicted upon Mr. Deskovic, who himself evidently recognizes this to be the case, as he has named his polygrapher, Daniel Stephens, as a respondent in his lawsuit.

I vehemently disagree. This was not a polygraph issue, this was an interrogation issue. The polygraph was the best scapegoat, and you know it George.

ParaDiddle,

And the polygraph is a tool used in interrogations, the polygrapher is an interrogator, thus using this tool to extract confessions. SHow me where the connection breaks.


Regards .....

Same reason that the interrogations at Abu Graibe and Gitmo were/are not at the hands of polygraph examiners. A big difference is that our examinees get smoke breaks and bathroom breaks and tests are not endless whereas generalized interrogaters are far less self-restricted and/or accomodating with their subjects. Ask the Taliban or any Gangsta Disciple. Get over your decompartmentalization.....only a pussy would compare a mere polygraph examination to a generalized lengthy interrogation.

ParaDiddle,

Different rules for the same game. A smoker who needs a nicotine fix can not focus, someone with the need to use the bathroom cannot  focus or function until relief happens, breaks allow the subjects more time to do introspection before returning to the polysuite, adding to the effects desired. Each part of your process has a designed purpose. You minimalize the polygraph test, while knowing full well its capabilities are to be just as brutal to the human mind as any torture device. Except it leaves no external marks. Internal well thats another discussion.

Regards .....

Again you strike me as being grandiose with your treatment of the subject of polygraph. Your psuedo-passionate martyrdom reeks.

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 4^th, 2007 at 5:20pm:

Again you strike me as being grandiose with your treatment of the subject of polygraph. Your psuedo-passionate martyrdom reeks.

ParaDiddle,

You strike me as being grandiose with your treatment of subjects. Deflect and redirect as you may  ......

The debate is most enjoyable.

Regards .....

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 4^th, 2007 at 4:20pm:

.....only a pussy would compare a mere polygraph examination to a generalized lengthy interrogation.

When you resort to name calling it does not indicate you are debating from a position of strength.

Sergeant1107 wrote on Oct 5^th, 2007 at 1:28am:

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 4th, 2007 at 4:20pm: .....only a pussy would compare a mere polygraph examination to a generalized lengthy interrogation. When you resort to name calling it does not indicate you are debating from a position of strength.

Granted, I was being flippent over the gross victimization of the ranks who compare the (albeit unpleasent) 3 hour polygraph test with smoke, soft drink, and bathroom breaks---compared with an 8 hour accusation fest, where the suspect is a pinata while the ego-smashing barbs from the mouths of detectives berate and echo repeated abuse.
To rephrase, only a self victimizing weakling would compare the relative "face slap" (poly test)to a piano falling on the head (marathon torture session.) Thanks for correcting me "Sarge", I must have had a headache when I wrote that.

Agreed Serg i notice a lot of that coming from the pgs whats up with all of the name calling...

The name calling stems from the fact that for many years now our ranks have been dragged through the mud over and over and over and over----and again. When you ask so incredulously "why all the name calling" you remind me of an American white man asking foolishly "why do black folks seem so angry?" Incidentally, I am proud of much of the restraint of my brethren, considering that many of the ranks around here disrespect their life's work and their want for safer streets. No brutality, just strictures mind you.

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 5^th, 2007 at 1:41am:

Sergeant1107 wrote on Oct 5th, 2007 at 1:28am: Paradiddle wrote on Oct 4th, 2007 at 4:20pm: .....only a pussy would compare a mere polygraph examination to a generalized lengthy interrogation. When you resort to name calling it does not indicate you are debating from a position of strength. Granted, I was being flippent over the gross victimization of the ranks who compare the (albeit unpleasent) 3 hour polygraph test with smoke, soft drink, and bathroom breaks---compared with an 8 hour accusation fest, where the suspect is a pinata while the ego-smashing barbs from the mouths of detectives berate and echo repeated abuse. To rephrase, only a self victimizing weakling would compare the relative "face slap" (poly test)to a piano falling on the head (marathon torture session.) Thanks for correcting me "Sarge", I must have had a headache when I wrote that.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; a step in the wrong direction is a step in the wrong direction.

As for isolating the polygraph's impact on the psyche from the less sophistacated means of confession extraction. I would once again point out that Jeffrey was interrogated on several occasions, with all the usual intimidation tactics being employed. There was a extremely hostile interrogation on both Jan 10th and Jan 25th if memory of the case report serves me. On both occasions, the investigator pushed HARD for that elusive confession,  but on the 10th, all he got was a map of the crime scene [a.k.a. "the pit"]. The interagator knew that he needed a confession to make a case against the kid. So he asked Jeffrey to take a little polygraph test, but the report makes a direct point that this test was arranged for the "sole purpose of obtaining a confession." The examiner graded Jeffrey as inconclusive, so the investigator decided to make a little white lie, and tell Jeffrey that he had failed. Things then got very confrontational, and jeffrey confessed. In a sense, they repeated the same interrogation keeping all things constant except for the polygraph. How do you explain why Jeffrey was vehemently protesting his innocence on Jan 10th, but gave into oppresion and confessed on Jan 25th? All the same dirty tactics were used in both cases. Only one thing changed at the end of the day. Furthermore, if the investigator had no other intention other than to get a confession out of that kid, why did he go to trouble of getting a polygrapher. What was he hoping to achieve with the polygraph if not the classifaction of guilt or innocence? The report made it quite clear that there was no doubt in the investigator's mind that Jeffrey was guilty well into December.

We all understand that a girl died in this tragedy; I don't need a patronizing reminder. There's nothing shameful about trying to prevent it from happening again. I believe the polygraph caused an innocent person to be convicted by playing a direct and prominent role in inducing a false confession. I don't have a personal incentive or financial motive to end the polygraph profession, so I don't at all feel selfish by arguing my opinion to anyone who will listen. I feel it is my responsibility, as a free citizen, to do nothing less.

P.S. Sorry if that last part was a little patronizing.

Brettski:
Quote:

The interagator knew that he needed a confession to make a case against the kid. So he asked Jeffrey to take a little polygraph test, but the report makes a direct point that this test was arranged for the "sole purpose of obtaining a confession." The examiner graded Jeffrey as inconclusive, so the investigator decided to make a little white lie, and tell Jeffrey that he had failed.

Tell how you know these intimate details. This seems like self-serving embellishment.


Quote:

We all understand that a girl died in this tragedy; I don't need a patronizing reminder.

Yes you do. Her name was Angela Correa. She was 15 years old. She had a family that missed her. She was rapped and strangled and beaten and killed.

This young man's name is Jeffrey Deskovic. He is now known to be a victim or casualty of a faulty investigation and faulty legal proceedings.

Unless you think them inherently evil, the investigators and courts were attempting to solve a murder.


Quote:

There's nothing shameful about trying to prevent it from happening again.

No problem there.


Quote:

I believe the polygraph caused an innocent person to be convicted by playing a direct and prominent role in inducing a false confession.

Beliefs are fine, but they are just beliefs. Its not the polygraph test that got the false confession. Its the interrogation that followed.

If that interrogation was as flawed as has been presented, its quite possible the investigator would have pursued that matter with or without the polygraph.

Please honor the fact that these are people's lives, and stop with the self-serving embellishment. Its not at all compassionate or humane.

Quote:

Tell how you know these intimate details. This seems like self-serving embellishment.

He likely knew this because the police used a polygraph in the case--for the same reason it is almost always used.

They had a weak case that had no chance of a successful prosecution without a home-run confession.

So Gino,

Would you cite this case as an example of the need to ban police investigators from obtaining confessions? Or, would you suppose this is an example of the need for better oversight and protocol?

Ludovico wrote on Oct 6^th, 2007 at 3:30pm:

Brettski: Quote: The interagator knew that he needed a confession to make a case against the kid. So he asked Jeffrey to take a little polygraph test, but the report makes a direct point that this test was arranged for the "sole purpose of obtaining a confession." The examiner graded Jeffrey as inconclusive, so the investigator decided to make a little white lie, and tell Jeffrey that he had failed. Tell how you know these intimate details. This seems like self-serving embellishment.

Ludovico,

I did no such thing, I know these facts from carefully reading the Winchester county report on the false conviction:

https://antipolygraph.org/yabbfiles/Attachments/Jeffrey_Deskovic_Comm_Rpt.pdf

and Matt Elweig's article on the issue:

http://adowntownreporter.blogspot.com/2006/11/someone-elses-time-jeff-deskovic-spent.html

They were both posted by George on this thread some time ago. As the case report states that the polygraph examer, Investigator Stephens, proceeded with the "avowed purpose of which was to elecit a confession" [pg 14].  I mentioned the report in passing because I had assumed everyone knew what I was referring too, and had read the material for themselves. It is rediculous to argue that post test interviews occured in isolation of the polygraph test. Obtaining confessions has always been an important selling point of the polygraph profession; and they're dangerously effective.

I still remember Angela's name, Ludovico. I mention it sparringly out of respect for her family. Unlike certain individuals who would call them into public eye over and over again while ostensibly posing as there self-proclaimed protector. If you really cared about comforting her family, I would suggest leaving them out of this debate. You seem very informed about how people ought to behave. However, I do not see the direct connection between saying that Jeffrey's false confession was caused by a polygraph, and causing pain and suffering for the Angela's family.

Also, I do not accuse the investigors responsible for this case of being evil... sigh.

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 5^th, 2007 at 2:33am:

The name calling stems from the fact that for many years now our ranks have been dragged through the mud over and over and over and over----and again. When you ask so incredulously "why all the name calling" you remind me of an American white man asking foolishly "why do black folks seem so angry?" Incidentally, I am proud of much of the restraint of my brethren, considering that many of the ranks around here disrespect their life's work and their want for safer streets. No brutality, just strictures mind you.

so have lawyers and many other professions....grow up no need for the ''ad hom'' attacks. you remind me of the little kid who doesnt get his way and takes his ball and goes home. go home.... PD go home...

tbld wrote on Oct 10^th, 2007 at 12:40am:

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 5th, 2007 at 2:33am: The name calling stems from the fact that for many years now our ranks have been dragged through the mud over and over and over and over----and again. When you ask so incredulously "why all the name calling" you remind me of an American white man asking foolishly "why do black folks seem so angry?" Incidentally, I am proud of much of the restraint of my brethren, considering that many of the ranks around here disrespect their life's work and their want for safer streets. No brutality, just strictures mind you. so have lawyers and many other professions....grow up no need for the ''ad hom'' attacks. you remind me of the little kid who doesnt get his way and takes his ball and goes home. go home.... PD go home...

This site extends beyond criticisms and lampooning of polygraph (corrected type-o)examiners. This site is one great big ad hom attack on every examiner who seeks to conduct fair tests in order to insure safer streets---and once more this site empowers sex offenders to disengage from their treatment and supervision protocol under false pretense. So, my question  to you oh "tbld" activist against polygraph----is, why are you reminded of a kid? Do you like "little kids" Woody?

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 10^th, 2007 at 12:55am:

tbld wrote on Oct 10th, 2007 at 12:40am: [quote author=Paradiddle link=1158809927/30#34 date=1191551618]The name calling stems from the fact that for many years now our ranks have been dragged through the mud over and over and over and over----and again. When you ask so incredulously "why all the name calling" you remind me of an American white man asking foolishly "why do black folks seem so angry?" Incidentally, I am proud of much of the restraint of my brethren, considering that many of the ranks around here disrespect their life's work and their want for safer streets. No brutality, just strictures mind you. This site extends beyond criticisms and lampooning of polygaph examiners. This site is one great big ad hom attack on every examiner who seeks to conduct fair tests in order to insure safer streets---and once more this site empowers sex offenders to disengage from their treatment and supervision protocol under false pretense. So, my question  to you oh "tbld" activist against polygraph----is, why are you reminded of a kid? Do you like "little kids" Woody?

First its ''polygraph'' not polgaph( you think you would know how to spell it since you are a pg...you are arent you?)  ;)  Someone needs a nap oh cranky crankifier...Got to love the ''quotations'' i know i ''do'' and what happened to buck-o?
Regards
''tbld''

Sergeant1107 wrote on Oct 5^th, 2007 at 1:28am:

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 4th, 2007 at 4:20pm: .....only a pussy would compare a mere polygraph examination to a generalized lengthy interrogation. When you resort to name calling it does not indicate you are debating from a position of strength.

Sarge said it best btw.....

tbld: Are you still riding Sarge's coat tail?   :-*

Wonder_Woman wrote on Oct 10^th, 2007 at 1:36am:

tbld: Are you still riding Sarge's coat tail?   :-*

WW: Its still summer time why would Sarge have a coat let alone tails  :-*

''tbld''

Summertime ended September 22nd Einstein. Time for meds?

Paradiddle wrote on Oct 10^th, 2007 at 2:15am:

Summertime ended September 22nd Einstein. Time for meds?

Its still summer in my mind! but....
Einstein? how did you know my name wow you ARE good  and no.. i took my meds already! wait.. NO i dont take meds orrr do I

''tbld'' aka ''einstein''

Jeffrey Deskovic now has a website with articles that he's written and a discussion forum:

http://www.JeffreyDeskovicSpeaks.org

Today's (Sunday, 25 November 2007) New York Times includes a feature article about Jeffrey Mark Deskovic. See, "Vindicated by DNA, but a Lost Man on the Outside" by Fernanda Santos.