Editorial: No need to believe ‘lie-detector tests’

Thursday, June 8, 2000 | 11:09 a.m.

After Patsy and John Ramsey recently announced that they had passed polygraph tests, which they said showed they were innocent in their daughter's 1996 murder, it was only a matter of time before O.J. Simpson got in on the act. Simpson went even one sordid step further, though, saying he would consider taking a polygraph test, possibly in a pay-per-view television deal, regarding his ex-wife's murder.

What's gotten lost in this public relations spin is that the media keep calling the polygraph a "lie-detector test" when it is nothing of the sort. Polygraph tests are notoriously unreliable and, because of this, most courts refuse to admit them as evidence. This should be viewed as nothing more than a stunt, since polygraphs are about as accurate as an Ouija board when it comes to finding the truth.

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