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Mechanical Testimony, David J. Portmann

Cleveland State Law Review

This article deals with the familiar conflict of people versus machines, in considering the legal question of whether a machine can testify against an accused. It is a generally accepted principle that a person's physical appearance and characteristics are admissible in court as evidence for the purpose of identification. There is no general rule, however, which specifies what factors constitute a person's physical characteristics, and a problem arises when the courts must determine whether an accused's self-incrimination privilege is being abridged.