Polygraphy

(Lie Detection)
Regular Class Version

Presented by:
Evelyn C. Falcatan, PhD., RCrim
Instructress
UNIT II
EARLY METHODS OF
DETECTING
DECEPTIONS
ORDEALS
• Ordeal, Trial or Judicium Dei is 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 tests.
• It is a semi-magical method of determining guilt of
innocence which goes right back to pre-historic times
through many cultures.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
KINDS OF ORDEAL
RED HOT IRON ORDEAL
• Practiced in the hill tribe of north Bengal. The
accused had to carry a bar of red- hot- iron in
his hands while he walked nine marked paces.
Another is the suspect will run barefooted and
blind folded over a nine red-hot iron, after that
the hand or foot will be cover up and inspected
in three days afterward.
• If the accused had escape unhurt, the person
was pronounced innocent, if hurt, the person
was guilty.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL BY BALANCE
• Practiced in Vishnu, India. A scale of balance is
used, in one end of the scale the accused is
placed and in the other end is a counter
balance.
• The person will step out of the scale and listen
to a judge to deliver an exhortation on the
balance and get back in.
• If he was found lighter than before, then he
should be acquitted, if not,, if the weight
remains the same or he became heavier, then
he is guilty.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL BY WATER
• In 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.
• There are two kinds of ordeal by water the
boiling water and the cold water.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
BOILING WATER ORDEAL
• This ordeal is consisted of lifting a stone out of
a boiling water, with the hand inserted as
deep as the wrist. More serious offenses
demanded that arm was submerged up to the
elbow. The burn was bandaged for three days
before examination.
• If the accused had escape unhurt, the person
was pronounced innocent, if hurt, the person
was guilty.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
COLD WATER ORDEAL
• In this ordeal, the accused was tied at feet and
hands and was lowered to cold water by rope.
This rope is tied around the accused waist and
had a knot in the rope.
• If both knot and accused dipped beneath the
surface of the water, the accused was proven
innocent. If the knot is dry or if the water
refused to receive him, hi is guilty.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL BY RICE CHEWING
• It is performed with a kind of rice called
sathee, prepared with various spells. The
person on trial eats the sathee, with the face
to the east and the spits upon a pea leaf.
• If saliva is mixed with blood, he is declared to
be a liar.
• Indians practice this ordeal.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL BY COMBAT
• The aggrieved party claimed to fight the
alleged offender or to pay a champion to fight
for him. The victor is said to win not by his
own strength but because of supernatural
powers that had intervened on the side of the
right, in which the judgment of God was
thought to determine the winner. If still alive
after the combat, the loser might be hanged
or burned for a criminal offense.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
TEST OF THE EUCHARIST
• This was applied chiefly among the clergy and
monks. When they the host it was believed
that God would smite the guilty with sickness
or death. Others believed that if the accused is
innocent, when given a poisonous drink for
him to take in, Angel Gabriel will descend from
heaven to prevent the accused from taking in
the poisonous drink.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL OF THE BIER
• It was an ancient belief that the slain dead
could point out their killer.
• In England, it is customarily for the accused to
approach the bier where the corpse lay. In the
view of the witness, the wounds of the victim
were observed to see if they began to bleed
again. They believed that murderer is near,
which causes the flood to flow out from the
wounds of the victim.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL OF THE NEEDLE
• A red- hot- iron needle was made to pierced
the lower lip of the alleged criminal and if
blood flowed from the wound, he was
deemed guilty, but if none, he is innocent.
• Wanaka, Eastern Africa practiced this ordeal.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL BY HEAT AND FIRE
• The accused walked barefooted over a red-
hot coals, or was deemed to walk through fire,
if he was unharmed by fire, he was considered
innocent.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
TRIAL OF THE CROSS
• The accuser and the accused were placed
under the cross with their arms extended or
crosswise and the first to move his hands or
suffer them to fall was held guilty or liar.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
TRIAL OF THE WAXEN SHIRT
• The accused was dressed in cloth covered with wax and walked barefooted
over burning coals. If he was unhurt by the fire and the wax did not melt, he
was considered innocent.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
HEREDITARY SIEVE METHOD
• Hans Gross, the Father of Criminalistics, in his famous book in Crimina
Investigation, in which beans were thrown into a sieve as the name of th
suspect was called, mentioned this ordeal.
• If the beans jump out of the sieve, the owner of the sieve is innocent. If th
beans remained in the sieve, the person named is a thief.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
DONKEY’S TAIL ORDEAL
• As a psychological theory, a donkey
is placed in a room alone and
observed. Then one by one, the
accused and the accuser will enter
the room. If the donkey cried a
judgment of guilt in crimes, is
pressured.
• It is believed the deep inside one’s
conscience, he is guilty.
KINDS OF ORDEAL
ORDEAL OF THE TIGER
• The accused and the accuser are
placed inside a cage of a tiger, if the
tiger spare one of them hi is
considered innocent
 OTHER COUNTRIES
PRACTICING ORDEAL
BURMA
• The ordeal being practice by this country is the two
contesting parties, the accused and the accuser are
furnished with candles with equal size and lighted
simultaneously, the owner of the candle that outlast
the other is the winner.
MADAGASCAR
• Legal authorities practice trial by Ordeal.
• The supposed criminal was made to drink, a poisonous
fruit called “tangena”, a small dose can be fatal. By
managing the size of the dose, those who administer it
can decide result.
BORNEO
• The accuser and the accused were presented a shellfish
placed on the plate.
• An irritating fluid was then poured on the shellfish and
the litigant whose shellfish moved first was adjudged
the winner.
GREECE
• A suspended axe was spun in the center of group of
suspects. Soon the axe stopped, whoever was in the
line with the axe blade was supposed to be guilty out
by divine providence.
 NIGERIA
• The priest greased a cock’s feather and pierced the tongue of the
accused. If feather passed through the tongue easily, the accused
was deemed innocent. It not, the accused is guilty.
• Another method practiced in the same country is the pouring of
corrosive liquid into the eyes of the accused who was supposed to
be unharmed if innocent.
• Pouring of boiling oil over the hand of the accused with the usual
requisites for guilt or innocence is also practiced.
See you, next meeting!