One might hope that law enforcement would not resort to the help of unreliable psychics to assist them, but both police and prosecutors are human too, and just as susceptible to being gullible or being fooled as everyone else. There have been two ways in which psychics have involved themselves in the law, first in solving crimes as psychic detectives, and second in the defense of accused criminals by assisting prosecutors.
Although it doesn’t seem to occur as often as psychic detectives, there have been cases where psychics have helped public defense lawyers. One famous example occurred in Watkins Glen, near Binghamton, New York, when psychic Philip Jordan was retained by the city to measure the “aura” of prospective jurors in order to determine if they would be suitable for that particular case. The Public Defender did not object. The judges did not object.
Even the New York Bar Association and the Tioga County Bar Association accepted this state of affairs. Their excuse was that a defense lawyer should be permitted to engage the services of any suitable “expert” in assisting a defense — at the taxpayers’ expense, of course. In his book Flim-Flam, James Randi quotes Bruno Colapietra of the Broome County Bar Association as saying “I think it is harmful to the dignity and traditions of the courts if it is allowed to be known. [But it is not dangerous] because experienced attorneys are not going to need psychics.”
It certainly would damage the dignity of the courts if it were revealed that the lawyers assigned by the courts to defend those too poor to afford their own representation are using psychics in order mount that defense! One question raised by the above, however, is the implication that these defenders are “inexperienced” — if that is the case, why aren’t they receiving better help?
