Opinion ID: 1279824
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 17

Heading: The Frye Test or Standard.

Text: In Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C.Cir.1923), the court, considering admissibility of a lie detector test, enunciated a standard for admissibility of scientific evidence: [W]hile courts will go a long way in admitting expert testimony deduced from a well-recognized scientific principle or discovery, the thing from which the deduction is made must be sufficiently established to have gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs. While mentioning Frye in a string of citations with no discussion about the principle applied in the decisions cited, see Boeche v. State, 151 Neb. 368, 37 N.W.2d 593 (1949), or obliquely referring to Frye in excerpts from judicial opinions of other jurisdictions, see State v. Patterson, 213 Neb. 686, 331 N.W.2d 500 (1983), this court has, nevertheless, recognized and adopted the Frye test or standard for admissibility of scientific evidence. In Boeche, supra, this court, considering admissibility of a polygraph, or lie detector, test, concluded that the scientific principle involved in the use of such polygraph has not yet gone beyond the experimental and reached the demonstrable stage, and that it has not yet received general scientific acceptance. The experimenting psychologists themselves admit that a wholly accurate test is yet to be perfected. 151 Neb. at 377-78, 37 N.W.2d at 597. Under the test or standard enunciated in Frye, reliability for admissibility of an expert's testimony, including an opinion, which is based on a scientific principle or is based on a technique or process which utilizes or applies a scientific principle, depends on general acceptance of the principle, technique, or process in the relevant scientific community. See, State v. Palmer, 210 Neb. 206, 313 N.W.2d 648 (1981) (rejection of hypnosis to refresh a witness' recollection); State v. Borchardt, 224 Neb. 47, 395 N.W.2d 551 (1986) (horizontal nystagmus test rejected); M. Graham, Handbook of Federal Evidence § 703.2 (2d ed. 1986).