Focuses on brain fingerprinting, a technique that measures brain
activity or inactivity following attempts to trigger memories. Importance
of the technique in proving the innocence of a suspect; How the procedure
is administered; How Terry Harrington, a suspect who has served 22 years
in prison, might be freed by using the technique.
By
W. Eric Martin, published on March 01, 2001
EVIDENCE
Terry Harrington has served 22 years for a murder he says he didn't
commit, but he might be a free man soon thanks to new evidence admitted
in a retrial last fall: his brain.
Lawrence Farwell, Ph.D., a psychiatrist with Brain Wave Science, a
brain research laboratory in Fairfield, Iowa, has developed a technique
called "brain fingerprinting" that measures brain activity--or
inactivity--following attempts to trigger memories.
In the procedure, Farwell monitors the brain's electrical activity
while the subject is exposed to words or pictures that may have
significant meaning to him. A criminal suspect like Harrington, for
example, might be asked to think about events surrounding the crime. Both
real and false circumstances are displayed on a computer monitor while
the suspect's brain activity is recorded.
"If the suspect recognizes the details of the crime, this indicates
that he has a record of the crime stored in his brain--including things
that only the perpetrator would know," says Farwell. But innocent people
exhibit no special brain activity because they lack the context that
would make a particular answer meaningful. According to Farwell,
Harrington's brain showed no memory of the crime scene but did show
memories of attending a rock concert with friends the same night, which
matches Harrington's alibi.
Farwell's research on the technique, scheduled for publication in
the Journal of Forensic Sciences, found that it determined with nearly
99% accuracy whether the six study subjects had participated in the event
in question. And while further research is necessary, Farwell predicts
the technique will be widely used in the future. "When you have a crime
scene, fingerprints or DNA are available in only about one percent of
cases," he says. "But the brain of the perpetrator is always there,
planning, carrying out and recording the crime"
PHOTO (PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): If memory were as exact as this
mirror's reflection, techniques like "brain fingerprinting" would be
unnecessary.
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