Reaction Paper No.

How to Spot a Liar by Pamela Meyer, TED Talks

Pamela Meyer said that lie spotters are armed with scientific knowledge of how
to spot deception and that they use it to get to the truth. The speaker mentioned that we
are all liars, and we lie for good or bad reasons. It was pointed out that the power of lie
emerges when someone agrees to believe the lie, as lying is a cooperative act. If lying
is a cooperative act, then how do we know if we are cooperating with someone who is
lying?

Before lie spotting steps was talked about, Meyer said that lying is not always
harmful. Lying has been a part of history. It has been used to protect secrets, to avoid
hurting someone else’s feelings by for example, telling your wife that she does not look
fat in a dress she is wearing even if she does.

Lying is a part of human nature, as even babies learn how to fake cry, teenagers
lie to their parents and other things that makes it reasonable for someone to lie. It was
said that teenagers lie 1over 10 interactions they have with their parents. People
normally lie and get lied to, as well.

Deception is a powerful, yet destructive act. Deception can cause billions. There
are 7 percent of the world’s revenues that were lost because of deception from
countless frauds. People who are genius of deception used such power to get into
banks and other financial institutions, also in the government.

“Everyone is willing to give you something for whatever it is they are hungry for”
People need a lot of things, from physical to emotional needs, we are searching for
something that may fill our needs, we like to hear the beautiful things, the possibility of
getting what we want that we give in to what we call half- truth, half- lie things which
people who are genius of deceptions offers us.

Meyer said that liars can be spotted through their manner of speech and body
language. Meyer showed videos on manner of speech, and the most obvious sign was
distancing the liar’s self from his lie in his way of speaking. It is like a denial. On the
video with regard to body language, the most obvious was shaking of the head and
shoulders while talking, and even excess eye contact.

The talk on lie spotting by Meyer is a helpful tool in the subject of law on
evidence. Lie spotting helps in giving justice by giving lawyers, especially judges the
knowledge to get to the truth. As nowadays, liars are even more trained and the basic
lie spotting technique of eye contact has been practiced well by liars. The video supplies
timely and additional tips on lie spotting, which is dynamic and has ever changing
techniques.

It was said in the video that liars may practice their words, but not their gestures.
In applying lie spotting technique in legal profession, it is recommended to ascertain the
witness’ chronological fact telling, the ask the same facts in other words in backward
order, then observe at which part of the witness’ statement would he or she be triggered
with liar gestures.

Lawyers are also great deceivers. We can either make crooked roads straight or
make straight roads crooked. The lie spotting techniques in this talk shall be used not
for personal gains however, but more on applying it in the determination of whether a
testimony is true or not, or of whether a witness is being honest or not. With respect to
lawyers using deception in their own favor, there is nothing wrong if the goal is to serve
justice, but otherwise, it would do minimal benefit to him or to other people. The more
people lie to one another, the more liars there will be in numbers. The truth seeking
starts within the person who is searching for the truth.

It is true that we all lie, but the person searching for the truth shall tell the truth.
We do not need to give ourselves excuses for lying. By being honest, we put other
people’s guard down and they will be honest to us as well. There is no perfect world. It
would always be half- truth and half- lie. But as human beings, our best contribution to
get to the truth is to be honest to ourselves and to everyone. As the saying goes “Be
honest, even if others are not; even if others will not; even if others cannot.”
Reaction Paper No. 2

Why Eyewitness Get it All Wrong by Scott Fraser, TED Talks

In the murder case narrated by Scott Fraser, a man was convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment based merely on the testimony of eyewitnesses. The
murder happened at 7 in the evening, the father, while instructing his sons to get inside
the house was shot by someone from a car that slowly passed through their house then
drove away. In less than 24 hours, the suspect was selected, he is Francisco Cario. The
eyewitness teenagers said that it was indeed Cario whom he saw that shot his father.

Cario insisted his innocence for 21 years, consistently. Ellen Egers, a judge,
petitioned the Supreme Court for a re-trial of Cario. The incident was re- enacted and
witnessed by the judge. It was found that the incident was dark. It was not possible to
identify the person as there was no good lighting. As Fraser, a forensic expert
presented to the audience the pictures of the re-enacted incident, it was clear that a
person may not be identified with such level of darkness.

Cario was freed, and it is with the help of a great judge with the forensic expert.
21 years are wasted because of unreliable human memory. When an eyewitness
testifies in court, there is a big probability that such testimony is not reliable. Numerous
cases on exoneration involve only eyewitness identification. According to Fraser, if we
try to remember something necessary, our brain fills in information that are not there,
which he called reconstructive memory.

In giving credence to the testimony of an eyewitness, the procedural measures in

court must be followed. However, in order to convict an accused, the prosecution
cannot rely solely on eyewitness identification. The court needs the help of experts in
different fields involving the crime that was committed, especially the forensic experts.
The forensic experts know the lighting, the distance which a person may normally be
identified, and other things with respect to identifying a culprit of a crime.

The testimony of an eyewitness is not backed up by any scientific basis or any

reliable studies that were conducted. It merely relies on human memory, which may not
be credible. Identifying a person who committed a crime would require efforts of
consulting with a forensic expert as the one having not only scientific knowledge of the
circumstances surrounding the crime, but also who is trained to ascertain the possible
identification of an accused in a crime.

The legal system shall adopt measures in applying not only legal knowledge in
identifying the culprit of a crime, but also shall include scientific knowledge to aid for a
better truth seeking.
 The case of Cario being convicted for 21 years, being innocent is a lesson not
just for the legal profession but for all people. Mere utterance of words may change how
people may know someone, just like an eyewitness’ testimony which convicted a man
for 21 years without any fault.

Cautiousness is very important. One small and wrong move that we thought may
greatly affect something. In believing something, it is a must to evaluate the situation,
ask other’s, and if possible, the expert’s opinion before arriving at a conclusion.

We can save lives as lawyers by properly evaluating the incident in a crime,

considering its scientific explanations and sides by not merely relying on what we see or
what was offered if there is something more to be unraveled. As the science and
technology is improving every day, we should take advantage to use it in establishing
the innocence of those who were wrongfully imprisoned and serving sentence.