Lie Detector History of the Lie Detection Lie Detector Would you believe that an native born FBI agent would be capable of espionage? Robert Hanssen verbally made an agreement in 1976 for employment with the FBI; agreeing he would not be involved or conduct any sort of espionage. During the 25 years as FBI agent, Rob Hanssen, never took a polygraph test. CIA employees endured a polygraph as a condition of employment. In the FBI agents viewed polygraph for criminals to prove cases. Robert Hanssen was accused and proven guilty of selling extremely important documents to Russia, putting the U.
S. A. in a very vulnerable state where we are exposed as an open-book to whom ever wants to harm our country. Newspapers tell that Mr. Hanssen knew just about everything undercover regarding the United States. FBI collected boxes of evidence trying to link Rob Hanssen and the national secrets handed over to Russia (2002, The case against Robert Hanssen). What is scary about this case is Rob Hanssen was one of the few selected members involved with intelligence who knew the ins and outs of everything top secret. Due to Rob Hanssen’s intensive deceit against the United States of
Lie Detector America, there new procedures with the computer systems, regulations, and more polygraph testing on government employees. Lie detection can be dated back to the 1800’s. The first devise used for lie detection was from William Marston an American Physiologist from Massachusetts which he named the “Systolic blood pressure deception test. ” William Marston created this machine that checked the blood pressure while observing physical body changes. In World War 1 William Marston’s machine was put to use by the Secretary of War for investigations regarding counterintelligence.
The United States Military had used lie detection as a tool extensively during World War 2 as well. The CIA started to employ these tools in the era of the Cold War. In the early 1900’s a Berkeley, California Police Officer named John Larson made two different instruments. The first was the “Cardio-Pneumo Psychogram” which was basically an Erlanger Sphygmomanometer. The second one which was created in 1921 was thought of as a duplicate of the first which was used also to detect deception. This machine was named the “Breadboard Polygrah”.
This machine that John Larson invented was a more advanced machine that was able to record both the breathing rate and blood pressure at the same time which is now known as the “Polygraph” which means “Many Writings” in Greek (2005, Global polygraph). Here are some documented court cases that set a precedence for the Polygraph machine. Lie Detector In the case of Frye vs. the United States, James Alphonzo Frye was convicted of second degree murder for the killing of Robert Brown. James Alphonzo Frye later appealed his decision in 1923. Frye, who confessed to the murder but then retracted his admission, was convicted by a jury.
At trial, the court refused to let Frye introduce evidence about his truthfulness through a William Marston’s “systolic blood pressure deception test”. The court also refused to let an expert witness be introduced to testify about the deception test. Frye appealed due to the court’s failure to admit the deception test. In an unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia ruled for the United States, the court related that the systolic blood pressure deception test had not gained enough recognition in the scientific community with the physiological and psychological peers.
The court did not agree with and upheld the decision to convict James Alphonzo Frye (FRYE v. UNITED STATES. 293 F. 1013 ( D. C.. Cir 1923). The case of the Scheffer vs. the United States was a very important case in using the polygraph. In the early months of 1992, a Military member of the Air Force stationed at March Air Force Base Edward Scheffer worked as an informant of various drug investigations for (OSI) Office of Special Operations. Edward Scheffer at times knew that as part of his job he would take random polygraph tests and submit to drug testing.
In April of 1992 Edward Scheffer was requested to take a drug test. Mr. Scheffer agreed but while waiting for the results he was then requested to take a polygraph. The results showed that the examiner indicated no deception from the polygraph examination when Mr. Scheffer was asked if he had used drugs since joining the United States Air Force. Mysteriously on April 30, 1992 , Mr. Scheffer failed to report to work and was considered (AWOL) Absent without Leave. On May 13 Mr. Scheffer was taken into Lie Detector ustody by the Iowa State Police after performing a routine traffic stop on Mr. Scheffer’s vehicle. When Mr. Scheffer was brought back to March Air Force Base, it was found that Mr. Scheffer failed the drug test that was administered due to a presence of methamphetamine in his urine. Mr. Scheffer decided to represent himself in court on all charges against him which ranged from failing to go to his appointed place of duty, using methamphetamine, wrongfully absenting himself from the base for 13 days, and with respect to an unrelated matter, writing 17 insufficient funds checks.
Mr. Scheffer related to the Military Judge that it was a “Innocent Ingestion” and denied that he knowingly used any drugs while working for the Office of Special Operations. Mr. Scheffer tried to bring up the results to the Military Judge but was denied because of the Military Rule of Evidence 707, which states in part:(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the results of a polygraph examination, the opinion of a polygraph examiner, or any reference to an offer to take, failure to take, or taking of a polygraph examination, shall not be admitted into evidence. The Judge then related that the Military Rule of Evidence 707 was constitutional because “the President may, through the Rules of Evidence, determine that credibility is not an area in which a fact finder needs help, and the polygraph is not a process that has sufficient scientific acceptability to be relevant”(Military rule of evidence). By a 3-to-2 vote, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces reversed the Lie Detector ecision per se exclusion of polygraph evidence, offered by the accused to rebut an attack on his credibility, without providing him an opportunity to lay a foundation for admission, This violated his Sixth Amendment right to present a defense . 44 M. J. 442 (1996). Without pointing to any particular language in the Sixth Amendment, the Court of Appeals held that “[a] per se exclusion of polygraph evidence offered by an accused to rebut an attack on his credibility, which violates his Sixth Amendment right to present a defense”.
There are many people who believe that these lie detector machines are not valid, and they are devided by fear or just ignorance. Studies show that an innocent black examinee is more likely to create a false – positive response then a white examinee. These studies reflect that 23. 5% of Black examinees were correctly classified as being non-deceptive which was less the a white examinee who had 36. 9 %. This examination basically says that if a white person who applies for a Government position that person has a 63% chance of found being deceptive.
An African American applicant has a 77% chance of being found deceptive. How accurate can these statistics be? Do you think they may be flawed due to these tests being done by students and not certified professionals? All in all, today polygraph tests will not be able to 100 percent distinguish the honest from the liars. Further action on government official employees will be ordered to take polygraph test because of Rob Hanssen’s decade of distrust to the American people. Polygraphs Lie Detector 7 date back to as far as the 1800’s and will continue to only improve.
Given above was a general description of the purpose of a polygraph today. Polygraph tests can only be used to make a case look either incriminating or helpful to prove innocence. Polygraph tests cannot be used solely as a base for hard evidence. As well, layed out how a polygraph is operated and what specific body parts are read for results. And there are more than just one type of polygraph machine available for testing. Also, the new technology that will improve accuracy for results and expand on more health issues than just lie detecting, such as diseases of the mind and body.
These machines could potentially solve many problems and save less time when perfected. One day we may end up with our own portable polygraph machine programmed in our very own cell phones, and we may use them to determine who’s a good friend or an enemy. Lie Detector 8 References Cherkashin, Victor, and Gregory Feifer. Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer: the True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames, New York: Basic Books, 2005. CNN. (2001). FBI to start polygraph tests following spy probe.
Retrieved February 22, 2001, from www. cnn. com Dallas Observer. (1998). The Lie Detector. Retrieved October 01, 1998, from http://www. dallasobserver. com/1998-10-01/news/the-lie-detector/ David Thoreson Lykken, A Tremor In the Blood: Uses and Abuses of The Lie Detector (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981), 25. Earley, Pete. Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1997. Frye v. United States. Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (1923).
Retrieved from, http://www. polygraph. org Maas, Peter. Killer Spy: The Inside Story of the FBI’s Pursuit and Capture of Aldrich Ames, America’s Deadliest Spy, Warner, 1995. National Research Council, The Polygraph and Lie Detection (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2003), 19. Police Technology and Forensic Science. (1997). History of the Lie Detector or Polygraph Machine. Retrieved 1997, from http://inventors. about. com/od/fstartinventions/a/forensic_2. htm The National Academies Press. (2008).
The Polygraph And Lie Detection. Retrieved 2008, from http://www. nap. edu/openbook. php? isbn=0309084369 The Polygraph Museum. (2008). John Larson’s Breadboard Polygraph. Retrieved 2008, from http://www. lie2me. net/thepolygraphmuseum/id16. html Washington Times. (2002). The Truth that Polygraphs Lie. Retrieved Oct. 16, 2002, from http://www. thrivingnow. com/for/Rick/the-truth-is-polygraphs-lie/ Wise, David. Nightmover: How Aldrich Ames sold the CIA to the KGB for $4. 6 Million, HarperCollins, 1995.
