Opinion ID: 853330
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Belated Polygraph Exam

Text: Ben-Yisrayl says the post-conviction court infringed upon his constitutional right to present a defense by refusing to consider evidence that he passed a polygraph examination in 1999, almost nine years after the crimes occurred. [1] (Appellant's Br. at 9, 21; P-C.R. at 564-66, 607-09.) We rejected an argument similar to Ben-Yisrayl's in Wallace v. State, 553 N.E.2d 456 (Ind.1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 948, 111 S.Ct. 2250, 114 L.Ed.2d 491 (1991). The debate over admissibility of polygraph evidence has continued in intervening years. The U.S. Supreme Court recently revisited the reliability of polygraph testing in a case challenging the constitutionality of a military rule making polygraph evidence inadmissible per se in court-martial proceedings. United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303, 305, 118 S.Ct. 1261, 140 L.Ed.2d 413 (1998). The Court concluded: [T]here is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable. To this day, the scientific community remains extremely polarized about the reliability of polygraph techniques. Id. at 309, 118 S.Ct. 1261 (citations omitted). A per se exclusionary rule therefore did not infringe upon the accused's federal constitutional right to present a defense. Id. at 317, 118 S.Ct. 1261. In focusing on the argument that polygraph evidence should be admitted because it is reliable, Ben-Yisrayl overlooks another formidable evidentiary hurdle. He offers his polygraph results to prove that he spoke truly when telling the examiner, No, he had not killed any of these people. (P-C.R. at 580.) But out-of-court statements offered to prove the truth of the assertion are inadmissible hearsay. Indiana Rule of Evidence 801(c). Even well-respected proponents of polygraph evidence have conceded that the type of evidence Ben-Yisrayl offers arguably violates the spirit of the hearsay rule because the foremost rationale for the rule is safeguarding the right to cross-examine adverse witnesses. Edward J. Imwinkelried & James R. McCall, Issues Once Moot: The Other Evidentiary Objections to the Admission of Exculpatory Polygraph Examinations, 32 Wake Forest L.Rev. 1045, 1064 (1997). Ben-Yisrayl cannot overcome the prohibition against hearsay evidence by offering the polygraph to bolster his credibility rather than for the truth of the matter asserted, because he has avoided impeachment throughout this case by declining to testify. The post-conviction court did not err in refusing to admit the polygraph operator's view about the veracity of such out-of-court statements.