Well said! I'm a co-founder of AntiPolygraph.org, a non-profit, public interest website dedicated to exposing and ending waste, fraud, and abuse associated with the use of lie detectors. All defense lawyers (and prosecutors, too!) need to understand that polygraph testing is a pseudoscientific sham. There is broad consensus amongst scientists that polygraphic lie detection has no scientific basis. The procedure is inherently biased against the truthful, yet easily manipulated by the untruthful using simple countermeasures that polygraphers have no demonstrated ability to detect.

As used by police, the "test" is often little more than a pretext for interrogating a criminal suspect in the absence of legal counsel. The police will claim that the presence of a third person in the polygraph suite would interfere with the examination process. This is a lie: polygraphers simply don't want pesky lawyers getting in the way of an interrogation.

For a thorough debunking of polygraphy, see AntiPolygraph.org's free e-book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (1 mb PDF).
George Maschke | Homepage | 07.07.07 - 9:50 am | #

George:
Thanks for visiting the blog and submitting comments. The only good thing about polygraphs are they sometimes give us leverage with both the prosecutors (and our clients!). If the prosecutor has an iffy case, a passed polygraph is a great excuse to dump it. If my client fails, I have more effective client control, which in the long run helps the client make better decisions. Anyway, thanks for writing.
Steve Gustitis
Steve | Homepage | 07.07.07 - 2:32 pm | #