Full Thread: Edgar Steele
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Old July 1st, 2010 #581
Hadding
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
IF the government cut, spliced, used whatever technique to synthesize a recorded statement they could use to prosecute Steele, THEN Steele's most effective defense would be for his WIFE to tell the jury that she did not believe it was her husband speaking.
At first I assumed that Steele might be innocent in the way that Hale was innocent, with the evidence being a matter of interpretation.

Biased interpretation of evidence is something that we have seen many times. That kind of defense would be prima facie credible with me. "Mission Impossible" on the other hand is an unusual claim that requires demonstration. "Mission Impossible" is where Steele lost my confidence.

If it is a "Mission Impossible" production then the recording must be unambiguously incriminating.

Steele was trying to get his wife to block the recording's admission as evidence.

Steele did not have confidence that his wife would conclude on her own that the recording is not real. Therefore he had to order her. He was explicitly instructing her to lie, to put aside her own perceptions and repeat his prescribed mantra, "That is not my husband's voice." He forbade her even to say that it might be him.

If it's really not his voice then an expert could easily show that, by examining the waveforms created with the pronunciation of specific letters. This technology has been around for decades.

Steele's calculation, I think, was that he had a better shot at ordering his wife to prevent the recording from being admitted than at getting an expert to debunk it after it was admitted. Steele is afraid of this recording.

The simplest explanation for all this is that the recording is genuine.

I wish I could believe in Steele's innocence but his behavior so far does not inspire confidence.

Last edited by Hadding; July 1st, 2010 at 09:40 AM.