S809: The Hypnotist part 3 - Is hypnosis admissible in court?

PRETEND

Javier Leiva

True Crime, Society & Culture, Technology

4.7 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is hypnosis used in criminal investigations? Believe it or not, law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the US routinely use hypnosis as a form of forensic evidence. And in some states, evidence gained from forensic hypnosis is admissible in court. Even the federal government allows hypnosis under certain circumstances. What is investigative hypnosis? When law enforcement hits a dead end, they sometimes rely on investigative hypnosis to solve the case. Specially trained law enforcement officers guide witnesses into a hypnotic trance to better recall a crime. But are the memories they recall even accurate? Medical experts say memories recovered after hypnosis can't be considered fact. Texas leads the country in investigative hypnosis. Many states ban the practice because its use leads to wrongful convictions. But one state leads the country in prosecuting citizens using hypnosis as a primary form of evidence. That state is Texas. The Dallas Daily News reports that at least 11 people in Texas were executed in cases where police used hypnosis. Today, 4 people are on Texas death row because of this practice. The Memory Room Dave Boucher and Lauren Mcgaughy are investigative reporters who spent more than a year investigating the story you're about to listen to. Their two-part series is titled "The Memory Room." It's about the case of Helen Barbre, a Texas college student who was savagely attacked in the middle of the night. She couldn't recognize her attacker, so she used hypnosis to identify him. Here's a link to their series titled "The Memory Room": https://interactives.dallasnews.com/2020/memory-room-dallas-texas-police-use-investigative-hypnosis-to-convict-life-death-row/ Featured Promo: Caper - An Original Multilingual True Crime Series Special Thanks to: Kellette Elliott for the custom collage artwork You can purchase the Hypnotist t-shirt here To advertise on this show visit: https://www.advertisecast.com/Pretend Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	In July 1988, a Southern Methodist university student, Helen Barbrake, was having a normal
0:16.5	day for a college student. She was working here some her job. She was hanging out with
0:19.5	a friend. She went to go see a movie at a local theater.
0:23.5	Dave Voucher and Lauren McGahi are investigative reporters who spent more than a year reporting
0:29.2	on the story you're about to listen to. Their two-part series titled The Memory Room is
0:35.2	about the case of Helen Barbrake, a Texas college student who was savagely attacked
0:40.6	in the middle of the night. Barbrake says that she couldn't recognize her attacker so she
0:46.3	used hypnosis to identify him.
0:53.0	Hours later, Barbrake wakes up in her small apartment in Dallas and sees somebody standing
1:01.2	in her bedroom. Within a matter of a couple of minutes, that person quickly comes across
1:06.6	the room and starts to bludgeon her in the head. The attack is brutal, it's quick, she's
1:13.2	screaming, she's fighting back. The attacker never says anything and within three minutes
1:18.0	of her waking up and seeing the attack happening, this person leaves her room.
1:24.6	Was she sleeping or was she awake when this attack happened?
1:28.8	So she was asleep, it was dark. I mean, imagine being in your bed and opening your eyes
1:35.0	and having seen someone in your room. I mean, it's everyone's worst nightmare. At first,
1:40.0	she said she thought maybe it was like a trick of her eyes because it was dark and then
1:45.3	this figure realizes she's awake and crosses the room and starts to attack her.
1:57.1	Headwinds are incredibly bloody. Even a minor cut can cause a person to bleed profusely.
2:03.0	It must have been really hard to make sense out of it all. What just happened? Who would
2:08.1	want to hurt me? Did I know the attacker? All of these questions must have been swirling
2:13.3	in Helen's mind. Before we dive deep on the attack itself, let's rewind and talk about
	...

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