Editor:
Kudos to Drs. Weiss, Watson, and Xuan for their excellent article on the background of the Frye test in “lie detection” (42:226–233, 2014). I was hoping to see mention of the story (true? false? could we detect the difference?) where police, interrogating a naive suspect, surreptitiously put a paper printed with the word LIE on the glass of a Xerox copier and placed a colander on the suspect's head. The colander was connected by a wire to the machine, which they billed as a lie detector. After each answer, they pressed the copy button, and a paper with LIE written on it emerged. The suspect was so demoralized that he confessed in detail. An amusing anecdote, but short on informed consent and respect for persons, among other considerations.
- © 2014 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law