The Polygraph Test – Does it Work?
Does the polygraph test, otherwise known as the lie detector test, work? Melvin Foster may not think so. Back in 1982, after profilers thought a taxi driver might be the Green River Killer, they targeted Foster as a suspect, partly because he drove a taxi. He generously agreed to a polygraph test, which he failed. The problem was, he was innocent. Meanwhile, over a period of about two to three years, the Green River Killer murdered four dozen or more women near Seattle and Tacoma, Washington. During this time, Gary Leon Ridgway was briefly a suspect, and he was given a polygraph test. The test, done in 1984, determined that he was telling the truth about his innocence. He was free to keep killing, and he did. It wasn’t until 2001 that DNA evidence (and other evidence) proved Ridgway was the killer. In 2003 he confessed and pleaded guilty to 48 of the murders. Melvin Foster was finally cleared after more than 20 years. The police never could gather enough evidence to arrest or prosecute
