Legal challenges which occur in the usage of Polygraph, Voice Stress and other instruments which are used for the detection of deception in prosecuting cases. Should the information be admissible in court? Why?
Availability of evidence is an integral element of successful investigation and polygraph tests make significant contribution when it comes to gathering more information. However, not always polygraph, voice stress and other instruments provide the investigators with the results of the highest quality and there remain some uncertainties considering some important contexts of its usage.
Practically, legal status shapes the usage of polygraph. However, it is important to notice that when attention is paid to the data provided by polygraph and the rest of the tools, the investigators are encouraged to have a skeptical view, which is not always shared by the agencies of the executive branch. The skepticism arises because the technology validity is still questioned and there are doubts about the need in any constitutional process which reveals some facts for the juries and the judges.
Usage of the results of the test also brings challenges because the test contains a substantial interrogation component. The usefulness of the strategies of interrogation type are recognized by the courts, however, these are not always ready to view the interrogation as a proof. Moreover, because of a range of reasons validity of the results is not confirmed.
Despite the fact that there are significant doubts, results of the test and of other instruments which are used for the detection of deception should be used in the processing cases. However, only in those cases when the data fits other proofs – this way the courts are provided with guarantee that the results of the tests are valid and that they are true (The Polygraph and Lie Detection).
Wen Ho Lee and the reason he is listed in the text
Wen Ho Lee was a person under investigation. He was suspected in espionage and violations of security. He took on enormous propitiations and claims whether he could pass the examination of the polygraph test or not.
This particular person is mentioned in the text because his case brought a significant change into the usage of polygraph and its results – the case of Wen Ho Lee made Congress to require screening by polygraph in the DOE.
Exactly the usage of a polygraph became the peak of the investigation and it was dealing with foreign contacts of the suspect, as well as of his activities of other type. Several polygraphs were offered and after the second one the direction of the investigation changed – it did not aim to identify whether Lee had any responsibility for the information share on the W88 to the Chinese, but the aim was violations of security which were associated with movement of computer files to the systems which are not secure and which were situated at Los Alamos.
It was reported that at the end of the 1999 the lawyers of lee contacted the U.S. Attorney’s Office and offered the suspect to take “a polygraph …