Has any suspected family member failed 2 Lie Detector tests and been found innocent?

[Calliope]

When I first saw it, I took the original post to be a rhetorical question. I'm suprised that people were able to come up with any examples since it's not the type of infor that would normally be public.

Quite a few examples.

Pretty pathetic that it happens at all.

 

[Chili Fries]

I've posted this before...

In the Somer Thompson case they had a prime suspect...a very creepy guy who lived right next doore to the last place Somer was seen. He would talk to the kids as they walked home from school everyday and even had a puppy that he used to get the kids' attention. He also had deviated from his normal schedule the day Somer went missing and made suspicious movements in his truck. And he failed a polygraph but it turned out that someone else was arrested for Somer's murder and now awaits trial.

 

[ThoughtFox]

After Desiree and Kaine made their statements about Terri failing the polys, LE, in one of their subsequent press conferences, reiterated that polys are only a tool used by LE. I've always found that a little odd, and it seemed to backtrack from Desiree and Kaine's vehement assertions that Terri failing the polys is meaningful evidence. Granted, this is my interpretation.

I think they just meant it was meaningful to them, personally. JMO

That wasn't the only red flag for them about TH, since she was venting about how upset she was instead of thinking about Kyron.

Some people, including myself, were interested in their overall view of TH, and not just the polygraph test(s). It's still interesting that the rest of the family passed all their tests - even though they were freaking out, too.

 

[debs]

I think they just meant it was meaningful to them, personally. JMO

That wasn't the only red flag for them about TH, since she was venting about how upset she was instead of thinking about Kyron.

Some people, including myself, were interested in their overall view of TH, and not just the polygraph test(s). It's still interesting that the rest of the family passed all their tests - even though they were freaking out, too.

Oh, their overall view of Terri is interesting to me. Very very very interesting to me.

 

[grandmaj]

Back to the Original Topic.... cases where a family member failed 2 polys and was found innocent?????

 

[Donjeta]

I don't have any cases in mind but statistically there must be a few.

The estimates about the accuracy of the LDT vary but some of the most negative estimates I've seen are about 60% which is just a little bit better than tossing a coin, and the chances of getting two heads in a row are pretty good. 60 % accuracy means that 4 in 10 people will get the wrong result. If we assume that guilty and innocent people have the same probability to have the wrong result you have a 40 % chance of failing if you're innocent. If we assume that the results of individual tests are independent of each other the chances of failing twice are 0.4 times 0.4 i.e. 0,16. It means that in average 16 innocent people out of a hundred will fail twice.

The highest estimates are about 90%. If the accuracy is 90 % you have a 10 % chance of failing if you're innocent and 0.1 times 0.1 chance of failing twice purely by chance and 1 person out of 100 innocent individuals will fail twice.

This calculation is somewhat simplistic because it is assumed that the LDT results are independent of each other. But if they are not independent of each other your odds of failing twice are higher. This means that you have some underlying reason for failing it stays the same between tests and causes you to fail the second time around as well. In reality I bet this is often the case because if it's a medication, a personality trait or a medical state that causes it you may be likely to have the factor both times you're tested. People who are very nervous the first time and fail because of it aren't likely to be any less nervous after being told that they failed the first one and asked to take a second poly.

Also, innocent people who failed because they lied to the police about something anyway may lie in the second polygraph as well but this might not count as a wrong result since it detected lying, even if it doesn't show guilt.

 

[ami]

After Desiree and Kaine made their statements about Terri failing the polys, LE, in one of their subsequent press conferences, reiterated that polys are only a tool used by LE. I've always found that a little odd, and it seemed to backtrack from Desiree and Kaine's vehement assertions that Terri failing the polys is meaningful evidence. Granted, this is my interpretation.

Kaine and Desiree were stating facts as they know them as grieving parents, not making official legal announcements. Therefore, having heard Terri say that she failed two LDT's, they found it significant information and shared it with the public. LE - being bound by far more limitations re: what they can say officially to the public, and having to be much, much quieter about their facts and evidence - qualified the statement "it's a tool..." Makes perfect sense to me.

Oh yea, me too. If I were guilty I'd tell everyone that it was very exhausting but they said I did great. Then when they called me back, I'd say that they said that I was so careful with info that they wanted to go over more stuff with me. Or something similar.

If I were innocent and was told I'd "failed", I'd be emoting all over the place! I'd be hysterical. Angry. etc. Crying. Scared. All of that, in various amounts. If I were innocent and believed I'd failed 'cause I was told so, I'd just be carrying on (as we country folk say).

Guilty? I'd never admit, much less pitch a hissy fit, if they said I failed. If you're guilty, why in the world would you run around carrying on about having "failed" a LDT? That's like making and pasting on your very own "kick me" sign, in flashing neon lights.

Well, probably because as far as she knew, the investigators were sharing information and evidence about Kyron's abduction with the parents and Kaine and Desiree and Tony were about to find out she failed anyway. So of course she would rush to inform the family that she'd failed and to put her own spin on it (angry, ranting and defensive).

What kind of sense would it make for Terri to pretend she passed it, only to potentially have this LIE exposed a few hours later in front of Kaine, Desiree and Detective Tony Young? She probably was asked to come back for a second test before her butt left the police chair. How would she explain being the only one asked to take a second LDT after saying it all went fine? "Oh, it went just FINE! In fact, I did SO WELL that I've been asked to come back to take a second one along with a 5 hour interview with LE!" Silly.

What do you think happens when one spouse fails a LDT concerning the abduction of their child? Do you think LE doesn't mention it to the other spouse? Especially when there's another vulnerable child in the house? I'm sure LE is even more interested to interview the spouse who passed the LDT to get more info on the lying spouse.