Truth serum

[Mark Graber]

Is the administration of truth serum unconstitutional or merely the use
of a confession at trial induced by truth serum.  A genuine question,
and my brief memory suggests that there is in the legal community some
debate on this.

MAG

>>> VOLOKH at mail.law.ucla.edu 06/14/02 01:22PM >>>

        Under Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293 (1963), the administration
of truth serum is unconstitutional. Assume that there is a relatively
reliable truth serum, and assume in any event that the government
doesn't seek to introduce the possibly unreliable statements as
evidence, but rather just wants to use them for its investigation (to
discover objects, papers, or people).
        Would such administration of truth serum still be
unconstitutional even if we're trying to track down a dirty bomb, a
nuclear bomb, or a vial of smallpox?
        Eugene
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/private/conlawprof/attachments/20020614/32055a98/attachment.htm