A letter from the dead in a murder trial
In 1979 a judge in Goiânia acquitted José Divino Nunes of killing his friend Maurício Henriques in 1976. Among the evidence was a letter Chico Xavier said Maurício had dictated from the afterlife, describing the shooting as an accident.
1979 CE · -16.69, -49.27 · status: disputed
The account
The case made news across Brazil and has been repeated in other courts, where psychographed letters were admitted as documents. It remains a debate in Brazilian law.
The sceptical view
The judge's ruling also rested on ordinary evidence. Critics argue that a court cannot test a letter's claimed source and that such evidence breaches the secular character of the courts.
The researched reading
A letter said to come from a murder victim, accepted as one document in a court case. Automatic writing and available information explain it; no test was ever made.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Perception, memory or mind | 32% | Chico Xavier may have written the letter in good faith through automatic writing, drawing on what he knew of the case; automatic writing and the ideomotor effect are well documented. |
| A cultural story | 25% | Spiritism is widespread in Brazil, and a psychographed letter carries moral weight with a judge and public who share that culture. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 15% | Details in the letter (that the shooting was an accident) were available from the family and the case; no controlled test excluded prior knowledge. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 12% | Supporters say the letter contained details unknown to Xavier, but this was never tested and the verdict also rested on ordinary evidence. |
| Undetermined | 10% | The share the reading had given to fabrication on doubt rather than evidence: the record does not settle it either way. |
| Something in the surroundings | 3% | Nothing in the surroundings explains the letter. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 3% | There is no natural phenomenon involved. |
Official position: The judge acquitted the defendant, citing ordinary evidence alongside the letter; Brazilian courts remain divided on psychographed evidence.