THE LIE DETECTOR

Evening Star, Issue 22974, 3 June 1938, Page 1

THE LIE DETECTOR

NEW SUMMERS MODEL RECOGNITION IN COURT WORKED BY THE BLOOD The ace of spades, sometimes named the “ Death Card,” howled me over in a test which I have made with a lie detector, writes Lionel Short from New York to the ‘ Daily Mail ’ (London). I was in the sitting room of the Rev. Walter T. Summers, professor of psychology at Fordham University, New York, whose invention was recently praised by a judge of a New York State Criminal Court. Small metal blocks rested against the palms of my hands, wires attached to them led to the amplifier, which in turn was connected with the recording instrument. Graph paper with an electric needle stood ready to record my reactions to questions put by Mr Summers.

I had already chosen, unknown to the examiner, the ace of spades from half a dozen cards he offered me. When he turned up each card and asked if that were the one I had chosen, I shook my head to each. Mr Summers watched the needle busily pencilling the record, which soon looked like an imitation alpine range. Then he drew out the ace of spades from the pack and said that was tho card I had selected.

When I again answered “ No,” after the ace had been produced, the needle rose to a great peak which, according to Mr Summers, proved I was telling-a lie. MANY EXPERIMENTS. Since he invented the lie detector, which ho prefers to call the “ truth finder,” Mr Summers has experimented with more than 6,000 cases and believes the instrument to be 100 per cent, perfect. Before the negro Major Green was tried for murder in the Mrs Mary Robinson case in New York, he was tested by Mr Summers, who (reported to the police that the detector suggested Green was guilty. Later, the negro confessed, and it was the lie detector, chart which helped to send him to the electric chair. In Rhode Island a man was accused of murdering a woman, but the body was never found. Mr Summers, using his detector, reported that the man was innocent. Later the police learned that the woman had disappeared of her own accord./; ;> s ... A Ne>.■ JerSe^,/]^,f!ein^n, was accused of taking 1 a I’6'nbe from a motor-, ist, and vehemently denied the accusation. He submitted to attest by the lie detector, and lost his job after Mr Summers had reported that_ the instrument had recorded against the policeman. “If you have a poker-face,” Mr Summers told me, “ don’t think you can escape. The more lethargic, stoical, and calm yon are, the more susceptible you will be to the electric needle.

ALTERATIONS OF THE BLOOD. “ The vibrations of the needle are due to the alterations in the blood produced by the adrenal gland. “ This gland discharges its hormone into the blood-stream under emotional stress, and the hormone stimulates the 'heart to pump the blood faster.” The decision of Judge Golden to admit the lie detector as evidence is regarded by Mr Summers as a great personal triumph. Judge Golden, who is acknowledged to be one of the sanest judges in New York State, scrupulously observed every formality. “ For hundreds of years,” he said, “ our courts have deemed tho examination and cr'oss-examination of witnesses in open court to be the best method so far devised to ascertain the truth, but it seems to me that this lie detector or pathometer and the technique by which it is used indicate a new and more scientific approach to the discovery of truth in legal investigation. I “ Objections to the use of scientific I proof are not new. Fingerprints, [ X-rays, handwriting, bullet markings, and psychiatric examinations were all at one time refused admission as evidence, although to-day their right is firmly entrenched in law.” Judge Golden revealed that out.of 271 persons tested on the lie detector at Fordham University, 49 out of 50 guilty were detected, 100 out of 102 accomplices were revealed, while other tests exonerated 119 innocent people. “In the examination of many of those persons,” he added, “ the results indicated 100 per cent, accuracy.”

USED BY THE POLICE. 1 The verdict of the lie detector, although admitted as evidence, is not yet accepted in court as sufficient in itself without substantiation from 1 , other sources. I I The jurymen who freed a young man j ' named Raymond Kenny—charged with robbery—after he had submitted to the lie detector test, said they would have believed his veracity more if the test. had been made sooner after the crime ; had been committed. Kenny was asked 28 questions. Some were: “Are you married?” “What day of the week is it? ” Then Mr Summers interpolated the probing question: “ Did you commit the robbery of which 1 you are accused? ” i I The detector needle went steadily on its course, failing to mount rapidly up the graph. . Later, the prosecutor in the trial exclaimed; “I came, I saw, and was | conquered by the lie detector.” i I Mr Summers claims that his instru- 1 jnent establishes the probability or •guilt where such exists and reveals innocence with certainty. I When first testing his instrument, the |

proressor used as a game aiuuu# students. One of them was chosen to steal something and the others became bis accomplices. Under the stern influence of the lie detector. Mr Summers would discover the criminal, name his accomplices, and -free the innocent man. . • . ! Its popularity is threatening to take the inventor away from his professorial duties, and he almost wishes he | had never invented it, so insistent are

the demands from public officials and private people for tests. The New York State Police crime laboratory at Schenectady has already included the invention in its equipThe great question now confronting criminal authorities is: “ Has Mr Summers added an infallible instrument to the legal methods of catching criminals? ”