Product Code Database
" Truth serum" is a colloquial name for any of a range of psychoactive drugs used in an effort to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling to provide it otherwise. These include ethanol, scopolamine, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, midazolam, flunitrazepam, sodium thiopental, and amobarbital, among others.
Although a variety of such substances have been tested, serious issues have been raised about their use scientifically, ethically, and legally. There is currently no drug proven to cause consistent or predictable enhancement of truth-telling. Subjects questioned under the influence of such substances have been found to be suggestible and their memories subject to reconstruction and fabrication. While such drugs have been used in the course of investigating civil and criminal cases, they have not been accepted by Western legal systems and legal experts as genuine investigative tools. In the United States, it has been suggested that their use is a potential violation of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (the right to remain silent). Concerns have also been raised through the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that use of a truth serum could be considered a violation of a human right to be free from degrading treatment, or could be considered a form of torture, and has been noted as a violation of the Inter-American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture.
"Truth serum" was previously used in the management of psychotic patients in the practice of psychiatry.Naples M, Hackett TP: The amytal interview: history and current uses. Psychosomatics01 1978; 19: 98–105. In a therapeutic context, the controlled administration of intravenous hypnotic medications is called "narcosynthesis" or "narcoanalysis". Such application was first documented by Dr. William Bleckwenn. Reliability and suggestibility of patients are concerns, and the practice of chemically inducing an involuntary mental state is now widely considered to be a form of torture.Tollefson GD: The amobarbital interview in the differential diagnosis of catatonia. Psychosomatics 1982; 23: 437–438.Bleckwenn WJ: Production of sleep and rest in psychotic cases. Arch Neurol Psychiatry 1930; 24: 365–375.
The Central Bureau of Investigation also conducted this test on Krishna, a key witness and suspect in the high-profile 2008 Aarushi-Hemraj Murder Case to seek more information from Krishna and also determine his credibility as a witness with key information, yet not known to the investigating authorities. Per unverified various media sources, Krishna had purported to have deemed Hemraj (the prime suspect) as not guilty of Aarushi's murder, claiming he Hemraj "treated Aarushi like his own daughter".
On May 5, 2010 the Supreme Court Judge Balasubramaniam in the case "Smt. Selvi vs. State of Karnataka" held that narcoanalysis, polygraph, and brain mapping tests were to be allowed with the consent of the accused. The judge stated: "We are of the considered opinion that no individual can be forced and subjected to such techniques involuntarily, and by doing so it amounts to unwarranted intrusion of personal liberty."
In Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh High Court permitted narcoanalysis in the investigation of a killing of a tiger that occurred in May 2010. The Jhurjhura Tigress at Bandhavgarh National Park, a mother of three cubs, was found dead as a result of being hit by a vehicle. A Special Task Force requested the narcoanalysis testing of four persons, one of whom refused to consent on grounds of potential post-test complications.
Other reports state that SP-117 was just a form of concentrated alcohol meant to be added to alcoholic drinks such as champagne.
The United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) experimented with the use of mescaline, scopolamine, and marijuana as possible truth drugs during World War II. They concluded that the effects were not much different from those of alcohol: subjects became more talkative but that did not mean they were more truthful. Like hypnosis, there were also issues of suggestibility and interviewer influence. Cases involving scopolamine resulted in a mixture of testimonies both for and against those suspected, at times directly contradicting each other.
LSD was also considered as a possible truth serum, but found unreliable. During the 1950s and 1960s, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) carried out a number of investigations including Project MKUltra and Project MKDELTA, which involved illegal use of truth-drugs including LSD. A CIA-report from 1961, released in 1993, concludes:
In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Townsend v. Sain, that confessions produced as a result of ingestion of truth serum were "unconstitutionally coerced" and therefore inadmissible. Townsend v. Sain, Sheriff, et al., 372 U.S. 293, 307-308 The viability of forensic evidence produced from truth-sera has been addressed in lower courts - judges and expert witnesses have generally agreed that they are not reliable for lie detection.See for example
In 1967, during his investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arranged for his key witness, Perry Russo, to be administered sodium pentothal before being questioned about his knowledge regarding an alleged conspiracy. JFK Assassination System Archives.gov Russo would later describe "his conditioning by the DA's office as a complete brainwashing job". Memo by Edward F. Wegmann of interview with Perry Russo, January 27, 1971.
In 1995, during the search for evidence that could acquit Andres English-Howard, his defense attorney employed methohexital.
More recently, a judge approved the use of narcoanalysis in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting trial to evaluate whether James Eagan Holmes's state of mind was valid for an Insanity defense. Judge William Sylvester ruled that prosecutors would be allowed to interrogate Holmes "under the influence of a medical drug designed to loosen him up and get him to talk", such as sodium amytal, if he filed an insanity plea. The hope was that a 'narcoanalytic interview' could confirm whether or not he had been legally insane on July 20, the date of the shootings. It is not known whether such an examination was carried out.
William Shepherd, chair of the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association, stated, with respect to the Holmes case, that use of a "truth-drug" as proposed, "to ascertain the veracity of a defendant's plea of insanity ... would provoke intense legal argument relating to Holmes's right to remain silent under the fifth amendment of the US constitution". Discussing possible effectiveness of such an examination, psychiatrist August Piper stated that "amytal's inhibition-lowering effects in no way prompt the subject to offer up true statements or memories". Psychology Today Scott Linfield noted, as per Piper, that "there's good reason to believe that truth-serums merely lower the threshold for reporting virtually all information, both true and false".
See also
External links
|
|
