Case Name: Robert HART, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1994-03-25
Citations: 633 So. 2d 1189
Docket Number: No. 93-2231
Parties: Robert HART, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
Judges: THOMPSON, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 633
Pages: 1189–1190

Head Matter:
Robert HART, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
No. 93-2231.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
March 25, 1994.
James B. Gibson, Public Defender, and Anne Moorman Reeves, Assistant Public Defender, Daytona Beach, for appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, and Kristen L. Davenport, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

Opinion:
DAUKSCH, Judge.
This is an appeal from a sentence in a lewd act case.
Appellant and the state, with the sanction of the court, agreed to a sentence after a nolo contendere plea. As a part of the sentence appellant was to serve six years in prison and five years probation.
As a condition of probation the judge required appellant to submit to periodic lie detector tests to purportedly determine whether he is truthful when he responds to two questions. One, whether he has sexually abused children and, two, whether he has had any "unauthorized" contact with any children.
The case law in this state is clear that lie detector tests are not reliable for forensic use. Davis v. State, 520 So.2d 572, 574 (Fla.1988); Jones v. State, 453 So.2d 226, 227 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984). Beyond that, it is improper delegation of a court's fact-finding authority to rely upon some nervousness-calculator to establish whether a crime has been committed. That determination should be made after an accusation, proof through actual witnesses (not graph-readers) and an opportunity to cross-examine as to truth, present counter-witnesses, and otherwise defend.
The probation condition relating to the lie detector is stricken.
The judgment and sentence are AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED.
THOMPSON, J., concurs.
GRIFFIN, J., concurs in part; dissents in part, with opinion.