February 28, 2003--KKWL Waterloo, Iowa

Brain Fingerprinting Technology Gets Big Break

It's called Brain Fingerprinting and the Iowa based laboratory has made a huge breakthrough. The testing is designed to identify the perpetrator of a crime by measuring brain waves. With help from the testing, the Iowa Supreme Court has reversed the murder conviction of Terry Harrington of Council Bluffs after 24 years. He was convicted of the 1978 murder of a Council Bluffs night watchman. More than a year ago convicted killer Terry Harrington took the Brain Fingerprinting^® test to establish his innocence. The results showed the records stored in his brain did not match the details of the crime scene.

It's in Fairfield, Iowa where you can find the home of Brain Fingerprinting. The creator, Dr. Lawrence Farwell developed it nearly two decades ago. "I think it will save billions of dollars, it will save time, it will save resources, and it will save a lot of lives", said Farwell. It works by measuring a person's brain activity from their reactions to seeing details about a crime flashed on a screen. "When a person recognizes these details because of having been there and committing the act, we get a particular brain wave that we can determine, measure and detect with a computer," says Farwell.

Waterloo defense attorney Mary Kennedy spent years working on the Harrington case, and is thrilled with this new technology. "I believe in Brain Fingerprinting, I believe it's scientifically valid and I think as years go by people will believe in it just like they do fingerprinting," says Kennedy. The results of the test might not have been the pinnacle moment of the case, but Kennedy says it definitely helped. "I really think the Brain Fingerprinting is what helped get an ear to our case and so people would look at it and eventually the Supreme Court looked at everything we had and overturned his conviction."

The CIA supports this form of testing so much it's gave the inventor a million dollars to help develop it further. Plus, the laboratory is currently helping out with a counter terrorism case. The testing can easily tell whether a person has been trained as a terrorist.

Brain Fingerprinting Laboratories, Inc. is currently working on several other cases to help free people behind bars. Workers are involved with nearly 400 cases nationwide. At least 10 of those are Iowa cases. So far Brain Fingerprinting testing has been proven accurate in more than 170 tests.

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