Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
The Lie Detector.


A sensational confession Of the
murder of an Annapolis man pre-
sumably has been secured through the
use of a mechanism designed to detect
falsehood. This particular lie detector"
has the additional claim to respec-
liability that it is sponsored by August
Vollmer, perhaps the country's leading
scientific criminologist. Nevertheless
the description of its use is in itself
suficient warning not to jump to con-
illusions. for we cannot be sure that
the mechanism had any direct relation
to the confession. Courts, it is likely,
will continue to frown upon the use Of
such devices in securing evidence.
There is nothing mystical about "lie
detectors." They are all based upon
the well established principle that
emotional changes are accompanied
by certain measurable physiological
changes, such as increase in the heart
beat or blood pressure. Now the transit
ton from truth to falsehood also would
be accompanied by an emotional change
in most instances. So we have. ap-
parently, a direct relation between
lying and the changes recorded by the
machine.
So far, so good. Some device of this
sort might be of value to detectives
questioning a suspect by giving them a
rough clue as to when he was lying,
thereby guiding them as TO the features
of the case on which they might best
concentrate their attention. But the
fact that the machine recorded false
answers to certain questions could not
be accepted as evidence, for the pre-
sumption rests on altogether too
tenuous foundations. Human beings
doubtless vary enormously in the
amount of emotion which accompanies
lying and in the physiological changes
which attend the emotional changes.
In the present case the suspect, a
man with a criminal record, was ques-
toned day after day as to the place
| where the body had been hidden. It
was necessary to find the body before
there could be any case against him.
His route from Annapolis to the Pacific
Coast was traced and he was asked a
seemingly interminable number Of
specific questions. Finally the examiners
hit upon what is now presumed to be
the place where the murdered man was
concealed and the suspects response to
a direct question was to become violent
ly excited and smash the machine.
But this method varied little from
the ordinary third degree procedure,
according to the accounts of the ques-
tioning. The mans resistance was
broken down by the constantly repeated
suggestion in the endless questioning
The "lie detector," it is likely, was only
one element in this suggestion. Any
instrument with which the suspect was
not familiar might have served the
purpose just as well. Every step in
the ordeal seems to have been designed
to suggest to him the uncanny powers
| Of the machine. The result was brought
|
! by the subjects belief in it-a condition
perfectly familiar to many physicians
1t is noteworthy that detectives thus
far have failed to find the body in the
| locality indicated-also that the man
promptly repudiated the confession
charging that it had been obtained by
| third degree methods. Probably he is
not far from right.
This experiment was conducted by
men with thorough scientific training
and understanding of the principle upon
which the "lie detector" mechanism is
based. But almost simultaneously
comes word from an Arkansas county
seat of a confession obtained by use
of an electric chair-little short oil
torture over an extended period. II
was operated by country sheriff, pre-
sumably with very amatsurish knowl.
edge, at the best, of psychological ano
physiological principles. The result ir
both cases was the same.
The Arkansas Judge admitted the
confession, since the accused man die
not repudlate it. But he wisely ordered
the sheriff to break up the chair ano
to discontinue obtaining confessions By
torture.
The "lie detector" may have future
but it still falls far short Of that degree
of reliability which the law must de-
mand In accepting evidence.
| --S-A@N-~ -
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