Thread by @lmcgaughy

ICYMI: Last year, the @dallasnews revealed TX police regularly hypnotize witnesses in criminal investigations, helping send dozens of men & women to prison — some to their deaths.

Yesterday, we learned state police ended their hypnosis program.

dallasnews.com/news/investiga… #txlege

2/ The Department of Public Safety would not say its officers ended their hypnosis program due to our investigation, which showed hypnotizing witness can create false memories and lead to wrongful convictions.

No, they said they’d simply moved on to better investigative tools.

3/ But state police used hypnosis on investigations at least 8x last year. 3 involved murders, including 1 cold case.

Astonishingly, these officers said they gleaned new evidence at 7 of the 8 hypnosis sessions. Will they use this evidence to build their cases? They didn’t say.

4/ Even with state police ending their hypnosis program, local cops can still use the dubious tool. In fact, Texas remains the only state with an active, state-sanctioned hypnosis training program for law enforcement.

Also, hypnosis evidence is still admissible in court.

5/5 Some lawmakers want to end police hypnosis in Texas.

I’ll follow @TxChuy @EddieLucioIII’s bills to bar evidence gleaned under hypnosis in court.

Read our investigation into police hypnosis here. It includes audio/video of real sessions: interactives.dallasnews.com/2020/memory-ro… #txlege