Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Forensic hypnosis under fire
In December, Grits posted a "brief primer on forensic hypnosis" after we'd discussed a capital case out of Farmer's Branch involving a hypnotized witness in the November Reasonably Suspicious podcast. Now, Christian McPhate at the Dallas Observer has published an extensive profile of that case and how the courts and law enforcement have handled hypnosis-influenced testimony in Texas over time. Anyone interested in junk-science issues should give it a read.
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6 comments:
Dallas Observer, or D Magazine?
“...This is not junk science. It's provable and it works." – former prosecutor Joe Turner
Has Joe Turner ever volunteered to be hypnotized? Put your money where your mouth is, Joe. Let's see if you can recall the particular incidents of the past where you hid Brady Material from the Defense. Same goes for you, Texas Ranger Carl Weathers. I wonder how much the public could benefit from having you hypnotized for "regression analysis". And I want to know if the so-called hypnosis expert can - while on the stand in the courtroom - hypnotize the Judge, or maybe the Jury Members. Can he do it live? Can his talents of hypnosis be used to sway the rulings of a Judge or opinions of the Jury?
"...The prosecution claimed that [current Defense's hypnosis expert] Dr. Lynn wasn't pointing out anything new and the substance of his opinion was available in Flores' original trial in the late '90s."
"The court finds that, through reasonable diligence, [Flores] could have obtained the testimony of Dr. Lynn or a similar expert at the time of his trial," wrote Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Rebecca Ott.
Translation = the expert for the prosecution in the original 1998 trial did not make statements at trial that would have been unbiased and neutral, and thus similar to Dr. Lynn's opinion of today. He instead omitted this available information and slanted his bias in favor of the prosecution thereby contributing to a guilty verdict.
Gosh, with these types of courtroom arguments, I can't be certain that Rebecca Ott, Carl Weathers, or Joe Turner haven't themselves been hypnotized to opine such bullsh*t. If hypnosis is as powerful as they claim, we should have every Judge and Prosecutor in Texas tested for possible pre-trial "hypnosis persuasion".
What we need is to polygraph the hypnotists who perform regression analysis on bite mark analysis experts. Then we'll absolutely know who bit Beyonce!
Thanks 10:08, I fixed it. Just a brain fart. :)
Send Turner and Weathers to Palau to help out our old friend Bradly.
@10:20-
Sept. 26, 2016 Local News
Former Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley is resigning from his job as attorney general in the Republic of Palau.
Bradley sent a letter to the president of Palau on Sept. 13 announcing his plans to quit his job Nov. 30 due to family reasons.
-I heard rumor he was heading back to Texas. But no word yet.
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