COURTROOM PSYCHICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00789R002600060016-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 16
• Publication Date: July 1, 1987
• Content Type: BOOK

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Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600060016-1
COURTROOM. PSYC
CS
FORUM
Editors' Note: The judicial system in this
country has been using the abilities
of psychics with increasing regularity. The
Honorable Howard E. Go/dfluss. acting
justice of the Supreme Court. State of
New York. comments on what appears to
be a growing trend. Justice Goldfluss
is a member of the New York State Tasx
Force on Child Abuse and author of
The Judgment.
The highest priority of our judicial system
should always be he quest for truth.
Although it seems reasonable to assume
that judges and juries mil be skeancal
of the claims of the caranormal-ESP
clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and the like-
to everyone's surprise, no one is laugh-
ing. Law enforcement agencies. juries,
and judges are finally acknowledging that
we don't have answers to the unexplain-
able. It really shouldn't shock people
that psychic phenomena have found a
forum in the courts, requiring us to deal
with novel and fascinating ideas.
It I've learned anything as a sitting
judge for 15 years and as a practicing
lawyer for 24. it is that the law must have
an open mind. Concepts not considered a
generation ago are accepted today.
Trial lawyers, for instance, have psychics
sit at counsel tables during the jury
selection process n an effort to determine
if prospective jurors are telling the truth.
Psychics claim that they can weed out
undisclosed bias or prejudice. Sometime
in the future the courts may have to
decide the propriety of that procedure
essential to the reaching of the verdict.
There are other examples of psychic
successes that even the most laced and
skeptical would find difficult-il not
impossible-to ignore. Greta Alexander
of Delavon. Illinois, calls herself a parapsy-
chologist. She claims she acquired her
psychic powers 26 years ago, after being
struck by lightning. I know the normal
reaction to such a claim: a wink and a
finger moving counterclockwise around
the ear, signifying that the woman is
playing with less than a full deck.
But in 1977 she pinpointed the missing
bodies of a three-year-old boy and a
twenty-one-year-old man who drowned in
separate nc-idents in Iowa. Those discov-
eries were documented as authentic.
In 1983 she again gave the police infor-
mation that led a team of 22 police and
civilians volunteers to a wooded area near
Peoria, Illinois. At the designated site.
they found the skeletal remains of a
woman who had been missing for a month.
Alexander had given the police a number
of specific details about the missing
woman: The head would be detached
from the body (confirmed). the remains
would be near a bridge (confirmed);
a salt or rock pile would be close by
(confirmed). Police agencies throughout
the country now routinely consult
Alexander. No one doubts her sanity or
believes she is a charlatan.
There is strong evidence that the public
is growing more tolerant at psychic
phenomena. Noreen Reiner, a sell-
oroclairned psychic in Medford 0
to privacy. Assume, says Ronald J. Allen,
professor at Northwestern University
School of Law, that a suspect is given his
Miranda rights and consents to waive
the presence of a lawyer. He answers
questions put to him by the police. Assume
further that the police arrange to have a
psychic present during the questioning.
Could his statement be stricken because it
was coerced? Allen believes this is a
strong poss bi ity. '1f the police have reason
to believe the suspect is susceptible to
that interrogation method and use it
to break down his will, there could be a
Fifth Amendment claim,' Allen says.
California criminal lawyer Harold Weitz-
man is concerned with the conse-
quences of the mind-probing abilities of
psychics. A Person in Custody has the
constitutional right to remain silent. But if
his thoughts are -read" and transmitted to
the police, has he then been deprived
of a reasonable expectation of privacy? "1
just don't believe it's possible.- says
Weitzman, "but if psychics can do what
they say. it would be the height of a Fourth
Amendment violation. If there's any place
you have a reasonable expectation of
privacy. it's in your mind."
For the present these questions are
debatable. Acceptance of psychic
phenomena has not reached the point
where facing such legal problems is
inarninent. But we will have to deal with
them in #3e future. Evidence is always a
matter of degree. Loose ends prevail
in the courtroom. Certainty is a rare
cortxnodity. Psychics do mat solve crimes.
nor do they rest a ftwsufts. But if they
contribute in any way to the discovery of
the truth, then they can't be ignored.
Those of us who participate in the
judicial system must be concerned with
the discovery of truth as our prime objec.
five. The value of psychic assistance in
finding the truth has yet to be determined.
Some psychics will turn out to be frauds;
some will be legitimate. We will not
be able to judge them until we listen to
what they have to say. If justice is to be
served. we should not be deterred by our
inability to explain how such a noble
purpose is accomplished.00
Acceptance of
psychics in the American is a case in point. She took umbrage at
courtroom has been gradual. The first an assertion by John D. Merrill, cofounder
major publicized case occurred in 1975, of Northwest Skeptics, that she was a
when ESP was used in a trial. Joan uttfe, fraud. She sued for libel. At the trial she
an inmate in a Raleigh, North Carolina, testified that she instructed police trainees
jail. fatally stabbed a prison guard. She throughout the nation on the value of
claimed he had tried to rape her. Jerry psychic intervention in crime investigation.
Paul. her chief defense counsel. wanted That fact was not lost on the jury, which
to know at the outset where a potential awarded $25.000 to Reiner and in so
juror's sympathy would lie. He employed doing gave lair warning to all defamers
Psychic Richard Wolf to consult with similarly inclined that they had better
him in jury selection. After Chris's acquittal, be prepared with the facts.
Paul said. "Wall wasn't one hundred Intervention by psychics will raise
percent correct. but he was more often vexing but intriguing legal problems,
right than wrong." Paul saw Wolf's role as including issues of coercion and the right
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Approved For Release 2003/04/18 : CIA-RDP96-00789R002600060016-1