Bomb Suspect Innocent, Polygraph Expert Says

Wed., Aug. 21, 1996

New York Times

In their latest effort to pressure federal investigators, lawyers for Richard Jewell released the results of a lie detector test Tuesday and produced a polygraph examiner who said he is convinced Jewell had no involvement in the July 27 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park.

“My conclusion was that he was totally innocent of any connection with the pipe bomb that went off in the park,” said Richard Rackleff, a polygraph examiner who previously worked for 27 years for the FBI.

The bomb left one woman dead and 111 people injured, and contributed to the fatal heart attack of a Turkish cameraman.

Speaking in front of the federal courthouse in Atlanta, Rackleff said he spent about 15 hours over two days administering the lie detector test to Jewell.

The examiner said that the 33-year-old Jewell “was not deceptive in his responses,” adding that the results “were unquestionable and conclusive.”

Jewell has not been charged in the case, but he has been the subject of intense examination by federal investigators and the news media for more than three weeks. The FBI has declined to disclose whether it has found any evidence against him.

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Bomb Suspect Innocent, Polygraph Expert Says

Jesse Tinsley

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