Panel Has Not Used Lie Detectors
The Senate Judiciary Committee has not given lie detector tests to either Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas or Anita Faye Hill, who has accused him of sexual harassment, a committee aide said Friday.
During her questioning by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), Hill said that when she was interviewed by FBI agents, she was asked if she would be willing to take a lie detector test if requested. “I answered yes,” she said.
The committee, however, has not discussed giving Hill a lie test, and the subject has not come up in joint discussions between the majority and minority staffs, the aide said.
Although lie detectors often figure in movies and television shows, law enforcement professionals consider them generally unreliable in determining whether a person is telling the truth. Because of that, results of lie detector tests are not admissible as evidence in state or federal courts.
The committee aide, who requested anonymity, said that he did not know whether the committee might consider such a step as the hearings proceed.
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