EARLY METHOD OF DETECTING DECEPTION

TRIAL BY COMBAT

Originated from India and one of the examples of this: a rich man or accuser could hire
somebody or bigger one to fight the accused. After the fight the loser is adjudged guilty of
crime. KING HENRY III of England abolished all legal ordeals except ordeal of combat.

THE METHOD OF THE ORDEAL, TRIAL OR JUDICIUM DEI

It is significant that, with few exceptions, the historical accounts of detecting deception
from the days of Christ, through the Middle Ages, are the history of the Ordeal. Superstition so
swayed the minds of people that it was rule for them to ask for the ordeal to prove their
innocence. The accuser was not looking, evidently, for suspicious clues in the face or actions of
the individual, for apparently the psychology of deceit did not exist. Even the religious of
Europe, as late as the 16th century, taught that proof of innocence or guilt would be furnished
from on high in a variety of mystical modes. People did not consider that proof lay within or on
the surface of suspect himself.

A common method of deciding guilt or innocence and a practice of referring disputed

questions to the judgment of God, determined by various means, particularly by physical test.

1. RED HOT IRON ORDEAL – This form of trial was used among the hill tribes of Rajhamal
in the north of Bengal India where the accused was apt to be told to prove his innocence by
applying his tongue to red hot iron nine times. If burned, he was put to death, the sense
of guilt made the mouth dry.

2. ORDEAL OF BALANCE – This is the practiced of testing the veracity of the accused by
placing him on one scale of balance. It merely this, in one scale the accused was in the
other, a counterbalance. The accused then stepped out of the scale, listened to a judge
deliver an exhortation to the balance and got back in. If he were found to lighter than
before, he was acquitted. This is practice in the institute of Vishnu, India.

3. BOILING WATER ORDEAL – A test of deception, this ordeal is in use in modern

Africa. During explorations in British Africa a Barotso native in her retinue stole calico
cloth form her supplies, and to find the thief she allowed the natives to employ a test
which had previously been outlawed along with local witchcraft. According to this explorer:
“the whole lot of sixty-odd natives with the wives, girlfriends and children who
were along, were lined up and our head boy explained the situation. There was a thief and the
boiling water test was to be applied to find him. There was not one dissenting voice. All agreed
it was fair test, so a fire was built and on it settled a huge pot of water. Solemnly we watched it
come to a boil. Then boil furiously, a smaller pot of cold water was turning over in huge rolls
the test began. Men, women, little children, and big ones stepped forward one by one, each
plunged their right arm into the boiling pot to the elbow, and stepped into the line on the other
side of the fire. Everyone took the test without murmur when all was finished they were told to
return at the same time, the neat afternoon. The one who, by that time, had lost some skin or
showed a blister would be proved the thief.

This type of ordeal, the water was symbolic of the flood of the old testament, washing sin
from the face of the earth, allowing only the righteous minority to survive.

a. BOILING WATER ORDEAL (Athelstan, King of England)

The accused will lift a stone out of boiling water. This is still practice in one place
in Cordillera.

b. COLD WATER ORDEAL

The usual mode of trial for witchcraft.
4. ORDEAL OF RICE CHEWING – An ordeal very like this is still practice in India.
Concentrated rice is the article chosen, instead of bread and cheese. Instances are not rare in
which through the force of imagination, guilty person are not able to swallow a single
grain. Conscious of their crime and fearful of the punishment of Heaven, they feel a suffocating
sensation in their throat when they attempt it, and they fall on their knees, and confess all that is
laid to their charge. It is also performed with a kind of rice called sathee”, prepared with various
incantations.
- a method of detecting deception whereby an accused will be required to take rice (to clergy
bread or cheese).If the accused failed to swallow even a single grain of concentrated rice he/she
will be adjudged guilty.

5. ORDEAL OF THE RED WATER – The accused fasts for twelve hours, swallow a small
amount of rice, then imbibes of the dark colored water sometimes as much as a gallon. If this
acts as an emetic and the suspect ejects all of the rice, he is considered innocent of the charged,
otherwise he is judged guilty. Their explanation is that a fetish of the victim enters the mouth
with the emetic red water, examine the heart of the drinker, and if it finds him innocent brings up
the rice in evidence.
The ordeal of “sassy bark” or red water is used in the wide region of Eastern Africa.

6. DONKEY’S TAIL ORDEAL – Psychological theory, the donkey placed in one room alone
and observed it, and if the donkey cried is a judged of guilty of crime, because deep inside and
conscience he is guilty. Method of ordeal where all accused persons will be instructed to select a
cage with a donkey, using a donkey’s tail they will strike the donkey and whichever cries first
will be adjudged guilty.

7. WAGER OF BATTLE – The judgment of God was thought to determine the winner, and the
defeated party was allowed to live as a recreant, that is, on retracting the perjury that had been
sworn.

8. ORDEAL OF THE CORNSNAED (ORDEAL BY BLESSED BREAD)- A priest puts the

cornsnaed or hallowed bread into the mouth of the accused, with various imprecations. If the
accused swallowed the cornsnaed or hallowed bread into his mouth he was freed from
punishment.

9. TEST OF EUCHARIST – This was applied chiefly among the Clergy and Monks. Angel
Gabriel will descend from heaven to prevent the accused from taking in the poisonous drink.

10. ORDEAL BY BIER – (by Shakespeare in Richard III) – It was an ancient belief that the
slain dead could point their killer.

11. ORDEAL OF THE NEEDLE – This is practiced in Wanaka, Eastern Africa. A red hot
needle was made to pierce the lower lip of the alleged criminal and if blood flowed from the
wound, he is guilty.

12. ORDEAL BY HEAT AND FIRE – The accused considered innocent when he is unharmed
while walking through the fire.

13. TRIAL OF THE CROSS – The accuser and the accused were placed under the cross with
their arms extended or crosswise and the first to fall was held guilty.

14. TRIAL OF THE WAXEN SHIRT – The accused was dressed in cloth covered with wax and
walked barefoot over burning coals. If he was unhurt the fire and the wax did not melt, he is
innocent.

15. HEREDITARY SIEVE METHOD – Hans Gross, Father of Criminalistics, in his famous
book in criminal investigation in which beans were thrown into a sieve as the name of the
suspect was called, mentioned this ordeal. The deception criteria were described as follows--- “If
the bean jumps out of the sieve, the owner of the name pronounced is innocent, if the bean
remains in the sieve, the person named is the thief.

16. ORDEAL OF THE TIGER (Siam, India) –Both parties are place inside a cage of a tiger, if
the tiger spare on of them, he is innocent.

OTHER COUNTRIES PRACTICING ORDEAL

BURMA
Both parties are furnished with candles of equal size and lighted simultaneously, the
owner of the candle that outlast the other is adjudged to have won his cause.

MADAGASCAR
The supposed criminal was made to drink a poisonous fruit called Tangena, a small dose
can be fatal.

BORNEO
Both parties were present shellfish placed on a plate. An irritating fluid was then poured
on the shellfish and the litigant whose shellfish moved first was adjudged winner.

GREECE
A suspended axe was spun at the center of a group of suspects, whoever was in the line
with the axe blade when stopped was supposed to be guilty out by the Divine Providence.

NIGERIA
The priest greased a cock’s feather and pierced the tongue of the accused. If feather
passed through the tongue easily, he was deemed innocent.

In the middle of the 13th century, the ordeal has died out in England and on other
countries.

SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF DETECTING DECEPTION

1. ADMINISTRATION OF TRUTH SERUM

The so-called truth serum test was introduced by DR EDWARD MANDEL HOUSE, this
method involves intravenous injection or oral taking of various drugs, such as hyoscine hydro
bromide, morphine, either chloroform, sodium amytal and scopolamine which may produce a
condition of anesthesia. There must be an immediate need for a Physician to be present during
the test so that the application of drugs is properly determined abs supervised to produce required
results.
Accordingly, this method is based on the theory that intervention thru interrogation in
made possible after dosage of any drugs so mentioned has been appropriately administered,
which depressed the cerebral activity to a point of consciousness, an influence called the
“HOUSE OF RECEPTIVE STAGE” or the “TWILIGHT ZONE”. The objective of the test is to
hg
It has been said that if correct dosage is administered and the expected influence resulted,
the subject will answer the experiencing temporary removal of his will power, self-preservation
instinct and the reasoning power he may disclose everything without evasiveness.

OBJECTIONS TO ADMINISTRATION OF TRUTH SERUM

a. Was the test performed by a skilled experimenter, operator, technician, or physician?

b. Was the dosage of drugs applied or injected necessary for acquiring desired results?
c. Was there an appropriate amount of time consumed in the test?
d. Was there certainly of results acquired to determined truth from deception?
2. HYPNOSIS
FRANZ (FRIEDRICH) ANTON MESMER was the first to introduce hypnotism as a
method of deception detection in 1778. Mesmer believed in animal magnetism, by which his
own personal eletro-magnetism for therapeutic effect influenced other person.
Actually, the subject is instructed to sit quietly and gaze at flashing light or shiny object
dangled before his eyes and to cooperate with whatever the hypnotizer would like him to do. In
this case, conscious cooperation by the subject is a must.

3. WORD ASSOCIATION
The basic practice is to present orally or visually, a group of words, each word
sufficiently separated in time from the others so that the subject responses to it. The essential
element in a typical word associations test is that one word or idea is reminiscent of another, and
the expression of their association forms a meaningful picture.
Accordingly, giving the subject a long list of carefully selected stimulus words or objects
with other pictures interspersed with other irrelevant words, objects or pictures with the
instruction to respond with the first word that may cone to the Subject’s mind
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung was able to observe how the thinking reactions were linked into
emotional habit of his subject. The theory behind this method us that, one word or idea is
reflective of another word or idea and expression of their association forms a meaningful picture.

FRANCIS GALTON –who started in 1879 the use of word association in detecting
deception.

WHILHELM WUNDT –who modified Galton’s association method to an almost

standardized form, a process that took several years.

HUGO MUNSTERBERG – was responsible in introducing the forensic application of

WAT in detecting deception in United States.

ALEXANDRIA LURIA – discovered that strong emotions prevent a subject form

forming steady or smooth automatic motor and speech responses.

4. POLYGRAPHY
A modern scientific examination technique in detecting deception whether the subject is
telling the truth or not with the use of polygraph machine.

USE OF LIE DETECTOR OR POLYGRAPH

It is not appropriate to call a lie detector or a polygraph. A lie detector records
physiological changes that occur in association with lying in a polygraph. It is the fear of
detection of the subject which allows the determination. The fear of the subject when not telling
the truth activates the sympathetic nervous system to a series of automatic and involuntary
physiological changes which are recorded by the instrument.

The instrument (lie detector) is like an electrocardiogram or electroencephalogram with

recording stylets making tracings on moving paper at the rate of 6 inches per minute.
The test must be made in a room specially built for the purpose. It must be quite, private,
sound-proof and free from any disturbances and distractions. Extrenuous noises, like blowing of
horns, ringing of bells or telephone and loud conversations of persons must be avoided.
The subject is seated on a chair beside a table where the instrument is located. The
pneumograph tubes are placed around the chest and abdomen, the blood pressure cuff around the
upper right arm, and the electrodes are attached to the two fingers of the other hand. The back of
the chair is equipped with an inflatable rubber bladder for the purpose of recording the muscular
contraction and pressure. All the gadgets attached are connected to the recording instrument.
The subject must be placed in a position so that he looks straight ahead.
The subject is instructed to remain as quiet as possible, to answer all questions by yes or
no, and to refrain from other verbal responses during the test. If any explanations are to be
made, the subject is instructed to wait until the termination of the test.
5. PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS EVALUATION
PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS EVALUATOR is a device that detects emotional stress in
a person’s voice.
MICROTREMORS refers to the low amplitude oscillation of the reflex mechanism that
controls the length and tension of a stretched muscle.
TREMOR is believed to be a function of the signals to and from motor neurons.

RECORDING OF THE PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE

The nervous control of the human body includes the central nervous system (the brain
and the spinal cord) and the autonomic or regulating nervous system (sympathetic and
parasympathetic). The central nervous system primarily controls the motor and sensory
functions that occur at or above the threshold. It may be voluntary. The autonomic nervous
system acts as a self-regulating autonomic response of the body.
The autonomic nervous system is composed of two complimentary branches: the
sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, acting opposite each other. The fibers of
both enervate all organs where self-regulation is essential.
When a person is under the influence of physical (exertion) or emotional (anger,
excitement, fear, lie detection, etc.) stimuli, the sympathetic will dominate and over-ride the
parasympathetic, thus, there will be changes in the heart rate, pulse rate, blood pressure,
respiratory tracing, psychogalvanic reflexes, time of response to question, voice tracing, etc. The
parasympathetic nervous system works to restore things to normal when the conditions of stress
have been removed. It is the dominant branch when the condition is normal and the subject is
calm, contented and relaxed.
The recording of some of the psycho-physiological reaction of a subject when he is
subjected to a series of questions, and the scientific interpretation by trained experts are the basis
of the tests.

6. COMPUTERIZED VOICE STRESS ANALYSIS

COMPUTERIZED VOICE STRESS ANALYZER is manufactured by the National
Institute of Truth Verification is the latest in a series of instruments known to detect deception in
voice responses. Voice stress analyzer purportedly detect physiological microtremor in speech
and convert those components to a graphical representation of experienced by the subject.

7. BRAIN WAVE FINGERPRINTING

Neuroscientist Lawrence Farwell who is managing a Brain Wave Institute, Iowa,
patented this technique in 1985. Dr. Farwell’s research, however, looks at a specific type of
electrical brain wave, called P300, which activates when a person sees a familiar object.

8. INTOXICATION WITH ALCOHOL

Alcohol can reveal the real character behind the façade of a person. This theory can be
traced in an old Latin maxim In Vino Veritas”.
Confession made by the subject while intoxicated is admissible if he is physically able to
recollect and state them truly and exactly even after the influence or spirit if alcohol has
diminished. But in most instances, the subject cannot recall his utterances or usually refuses to
admit the truth of the statement given.

SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION OF LYING PERSON

The following are the psycho-physiological sign and symptoms of guilt:

1. SWEATING – accompanied with a face indicate anger, embarrassment or extreme

nervousness.
2. COLOR CHANGE OF FACE – flushed face may indicate anger, embarrassment, or shame.
3. DRYNESS OF MOUTH – nervous tension causes reflex inhibition of salivary secretion and
consequently dryness of the mouth.
4. EXCESS ACTIVITY OF THE ADAM’S APPLE
5. FIDGETING – a suspect may be constantly moving about in the chair, pulling his ears,
rubbing his face, etc.
6. PECULIAR FEELING – there is a sensation of lightness and the subject is confused.
7. SWEARING TO THE TRUTHFULNESS OF ASSERTION
8. RELIGIOUS MAN AND/OR SPOTLESS PAST RECORD
9. INABILITY TO LOOK AT THE INVESTIGATOR STRAIGHT IN THE EYE
10. NOT THAT I REMEMBER EXPRESSION