Death row prisoner to use ‘brain fingerprinting’ in pardon bid

A CONTROVERSIAL technique using involuntary brainwaves that could reveal guilt or innocence in a crime is about to take centre stage in a last-chance appeal against a death-row conviction in the US.

The technique, called "brain fingerprinting", has already been tested by the FBI and has now become part of the key evidence to overturn the murder conviction of Jimmy Ray Slaughter who is facing execution in Oklahoma.

Brain fingerprinting, developed by Dr Larry Farwell, is a method of reading the brain's involuntary electrical activity in response to a subject being shown certain images relating to a crime.