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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsVoice Stress Test on night of Trayvon's death "probably contributed to (Zimmerman's) release"
By Stephanie Rabiner, Esq. at FindLaw.com
Fri Apr 6, 2012 1:07am EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/06/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-blotter-idUS214913966420120406
George Zimmerman's defense team is growing, suggesting that he's planning for a grand jury indictment and a subsequent criminal trial. Interestingly, his new attorney has begun releasing some previously unknown facts.
Did you know that, on the night of Trayvon Martin's death, Sanford police gave George Zimmerman a voice stress test? They did, and the results probably contributed to his release.
A voice stress test is like a polygraph, but instead of measuring heart rate and blood pressure, it looks for changes in an individual's voice patterns that are thought to suggest psychological stress. With the help of software, investigators record a suspect answering baseline questions and then compare them to answers about the case.
Expert opinion is mixed, but a study commissioned by the Justice Department suggests that a voice stress test is "no better than flipping a coin." For this reason, like its cousin the polygraph, George Zimmerman's voice stress test probably wouldn't be admissible at trial. However, it can still be used in the investigatory phase.
Rex
(65,616 posts)from the local gas station?
niyad
(113,348 posts)that say about a person who, having just killed someone (regardless of reason) shows no stress at all?
EOTE
(13,409 posts)So basically, this test is a get out of jail free card for psychopaths. Lovely.
niyad
(113,348 posts)and the same is obviously true for voice stress.
this, of course, assumes that the sanford pd really did do such a test--why is this the first we are hearing of it?
Ecumenist
(6,086 posts)as he had so many times before.
niyad
(113,348 posts)why would one worry?
slampoet
(5,032 posts)Because this is about stress at the hands of the cops not stress at the time of the shooting.
This is the kind of stupidity we have in our police because we don't hire ANY police that score above 110 on the IQ test and we only hire certain personalities (the ones that can see other's POV)
Schema Thing
(10,283 posts)wandy
(3,539 posts)It appears they will keep changing things to make George's story more believable in the face of overwhelming evidence that something else happened..
Will George eventually be painted a hero?
Are they trying to prove that this case justifies SYG laws?
Their are a lot of things that could have been brought out up front.
No I don't think it's bad police work.
Yes enhancing a video can produce bumps and scratches in the same way videos can be 'enhanced' for SiFi movies to show monsters from outer space.
I doubt we will ever know the real story.
tabatha
(18,795 posts)Would the guilt of killing someone in cold blood not contribute to stress?
And there was no time taken to have a medical person confirm any so-called concussion, broken nose?
But there was time for a stress test?
Yup.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)They have no medical records of a broken nose. They would have been releasing these documents if they had them.