Brain Fingerprinting - criminaljustice

A critical task of the criminal justice system is to determine who has committed a crime. The key difference between a guilty party and an innocent suspect is that the perpetrator of the crime has a record of the crime stored in their brain, and the innocent suspect does not. Until the invention of Brain Fingerprinting testing, there was no scientifically valid way to detect this fundamental difference.

Brain Fingerprinting testing does not prove guilt or innocence. That is the role of a judge and jury. This exciting technology gives the judge and jury new, scientifically valid evidence to help them arrive at their decision. DNA evidence and fingerprints are available in only about 1% of major crimes. It is estimated that Brain Fingerprinting testing will apply in approximately 60 to 70% of these major crimes. The impacts on the criminal justice system will be profound. The potential now exists to significantly improve the speed and accuracy of the entire system, from investigations to parole hearings. Brain Fingerprinting testing will be able to dramatically reduce the costs associated with investigating and prosecuting innocent people and allow law enforcement professionals to concentrate on suspects who have verifiable, detailed knowledge of the crimes.

Brain Fingerprinting testing represents a new paradigm in law enforcement. It is a technology that has been researched and tested for more than 20 years and has now been admitted as scientific evidence in court.

Brain Fingerprinting testing has proven to be highly accurate in over 175 tests, which included actual criminal cases, tests on FBI agents and tests on military medical experts. In all but six of these cases, the system produced a determination of either "information present" or "information absent." 100% of these determinations were correct. In six cases, insufficient information was available and no determination was made. Dr. Farwell, the inventor of Brain Fingerprinting technology, discovered that the P300 was one aspect of a larger brain-wave response that he named and patented, a MERMER^Ž (memory and encoding related multifaceted electroencephalographic response). The discovery of the MERMER allows the results gained through the P300 testing to be even more accurate. Since the inclusion of the MERMER in the brain-wave analysis algorithm, Brain Fingerprinting testing has made a definitive determination in every test.

What if the person knows about the crime because he was there as a witness and not a perpetrator?

Brain Fingerprinting testing will determine if specific information is in the brain, but will not tell us how it got there. It is like having fingerprints at the crime scene. Someone's fingerprints could be there because he was there witnessing the crime and not because he committed it. In a case where there are two people at a crime scene and only one committed the crime, Brain Fingerprinting testing can narrow the search down to the two suspects. It cannot be used to distinguish why a person was at the crime scene. Like DNA and fingerprinting, Brain Fingerprinting testing matches evidence at a crime scene with evidence on the person of the perpetrator or suspect. It can place a person at the crime scene or exonerate someone who was not there. If specific information is available about the planning or execution of a crime that a witness would not know, then Brain Fingerprinting testing may be able to distinguish between a witness and a perpetrator.

General knowledge gained from a newspaper or television does not interfere with Brain Fingerprinting testing. A suspect is tested for details of the crime that only the perpetrator and investigators would know, but that have not been publicly released.

What if an innocent suspect knows many details about the crime from the trial or interrogations, or if the police told a suspect details about the crime during interrogation?

The best scenario in which to apply Brain Fingerprinting testing is one where the crime is recent and the suspect has not been exposed to information about it. Then the suspect can easily be tested for knowledge about the crime that only the perpetrator would know.

In cases where the suspect has already been tried and convicted, the suspect knows many of the details of the crime from the trial, whether he is innocent or guilty. In such a case, details about the crime that have not been presented in court and that an innocent suspect would not know need to be identified. In some cases this involves considerable investigation. Information can be obtained from court documents, police reports, alleged witnesses, crime scene photos and the crime scene itself. Often, as in the Terry Harrington case, which occurred 20 years before the Brain Fingerprinting test, and in which there had been several appeals in addition to the original trial, it is still possible to discover details about the crime that the suspect was never directly exposed to at the trial or in interrogation, but that he would have to know if he had committed the crime.

There are several types of cases where this technology does not apply. For example, in a disappearance, all the authorities may know is that someone disappeared. They may not know if any crime has been committed. Another situation where Brain Fingerprinting testing is not applicable is when everyone agrees on what happened, but there is disagreement as to the intent of the parties. For example, in a sexual assault case the alleged victim and the alleged perpetrator may agree exactly on what happened, but disagree on whether or not it was consensual.

Where in the criminal justice system does Brain Fingerprinting testing apply?

Brain Fingerprinting testing solves major problems in both pre- and post conviction areas and can be a great asset to both prosecutors and defense attorneys. There are 14 million crimes reported by police to the FBI annually in the U.S. in the seven major categories that are included in the Uniform Crime Reporting Program. The National Crime Victimization Survey, which is conducted by the US Census Bureau and includes additional categories of crimes, estimates that over 34 million crimes are committed annually in the U.S. In only 35% of the cases is an arrest made.

Additionally, there are approximately 6 million individuals in the US either in prison, jail or under some form of state supervision such as parole or work release. Of those who are imprisoned, an estimated 5% to 10 % are innocent. This means that over 300,000 inmates, and possibly more than 600,000, may be wrongfully imprisoned. In total, U.S. federal, state and local governments spend over $150 billion annually on crime. This does not include the costs to victims, innocent suspects and to society. The worldwide costs are significantly higher than this amount.

Brain Fingerprinting testing can address many of these critical areas, helping to identify the guilty and exonerate the innocent. Crimes often go unsolved and unpunished because the authorities cannot accurately determine if a suspect has knowledge about the details of a crime that only the perpetrator would know. In the absence of fingerprints or DNA evidence the criminal justice system often does not have scientific methods of identifying those involved in crimes. Circumstantial evidence is often not sufficient to convict a suspect or even to prosecute a case. Brain Fingerprinting testing can determine if a suspect has detailed, specific knowledge of a crime and provide scientific evidence where none existed previously.

Brain Fingerprinting testing finds the truth in long-term cases

Dr. Farwell conducted a Brain Fingerprinting test on Terry Harrington, who is serving a life sentence in Iowa for a 1977 murder. The test showed that the record stored in Harrington's brain did not match the crime scene and did match the alibi. Harrington filed a petition for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, including the Brain Fingerprinting test. On February 26, 2003 the Iowa Supreme Court reversed his murder conviction and ordered a new trial. In October 2003, the State of Iowa elected not to re-try Mr. Harrington.

Brain Fingerprinting testing also helped to bring serial killer J. B. Grinder to justice fifteen years after the commission of the crime. The Brain Fingerprinting test administered to Grinder found that the specific details of the crime were recorded in his brain as information present, with a statistical confidence level of 99.9%. This means that the record stored in Grinders brain matched the details of the crime scene of the murder of Julie Helton. Following the test results, Grinder faced an almost certain conviction and probable death sentence. Grinder pled guilty to the rape and murder of Julie Helton in exchange for a life sentence without parole. He is currently serving that sentence. In addition, Grinder then confessed to the unsolved murders of several other young women.

On March 5, 2002 Pottawattamie County District Court Judge Tim O'Grady ruled that Brain Fingerprinting testing is admissible in court. Brain Fingerprinting testing is a technological breakthrough that will have a profound impact on the criminal justice system. The Iowa Supreme Court left undisturbed the law of the case establishing the admissibility of the Brain Fingerprinting evidence.