Opinion ID: 200831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mandatory Polygraph Testing

Text: 26 More serious is York's Fifth Amendment challenge to the mandatory polygraph testing requirement in his supervised release conditions. We turn to that question after addressing York's two threshold objections to the polygraph testing condition.
27 York contends that the polygraph testing requirement, as worded in the district court's order, unlawfully delegates to non-judicial officers the power to determine matters of punishment. He argues that the district court's command that he shall be required to submit to periodic polygraph testing as a means to insure that he is in compliance with the requirements of his therapeutic program is vague as to the frequency, duration, and allowable scope of the questioning. By failing to specify these details, York claims, the district court impermissibly assigned to the Probation Office the power to determine the nature and extent of his punishment. 28 The district court committed no error in allowing York's probation officers to determine these details. Federal courts are not prohibited from using nonjudicial officers to support judicial functions, as long as th[e] judicial officer retains and exercises ultimate responsibility. United States v. Allen, 312 F.3d 512, 515-16 (1st Cir.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the district court left no significant penological decision to the discretion of the Probation Office: the court itself determined that York is to participate in a treatment program for sex offenders and that York shall be required to submit to polygraph testing to confirm his compliance with his treatment regimen. This distinguishes York's case from our recent decision in United States v. Melendez-Santana, 353 F.3d 93 (1st Cir.2003). In Melendez-Santana, this court upheld a delegation challenge to a special condition of supervised release because the district court had authorized the defendant's probation officer to determine not only the details of the defendant's drug treatment, but also whether the defendant would be required to undergo such treatment. Id. at 101; see also Peterson, 248 F.3d at 84-85; United States v. Kent, 209 F.3d 1073, 1079 (8th Cir.2000). In this case, the district court made all such decisions itself. 29 Further, contrary to York's assertion, the district court did restrict the scope of permissible questioning: the polygraph testing is a means to [e]nsure that [York] is in compliance with the requirements of his therapeutic program. This is a permissibly narrow delegation of administrative details. See Melendez-Santana, 353 F.3d at 101 n. 6 (the question of which drug program a defendant must attend, and when he may be discharged, involves administrative details properly delegated to a probation officer); Allen, 312 F.3d at 516. Indeed, the delegation here is narrower than the one that this court upheld in Allen as acceptable reliance on probation officers' administrative expertise. 6 See 312 F.3d at 515-16 (upholding a condition requiring the defendant to participate in mental health treatment as directed by the probation officer, until such time as the defendant is released from the program by the probation officer). York's reliance on United States v. Merric, 166 F.3d 406 (1st Cir.1999), is misplaced. In Merric, this court vacated the defendant's sentence because the trial court impermissibly delegated to a probation officer the power to set the defendant's fine payment schedule. See id. at 408-09. If a probation officer cannot set a fine payment schedule, York argues, a schedule of polygraph sessions should be equally off-limits. The analogy is not persuasive. Merric simply held that it is the inherent responsibility of the judge to determine matters of punishment and this includes final authority over all payment matters. Id. at 409. But the schedule of installment payments for a fine or restitution order has a far more material impact on a defendant than the timing of intermittent polygraph examinations. Setting the former may be a core judicial function, United States v. Miller, 77 F.3d 71, 78 (4th Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted), but scheduling the latter is surely a matter of administrative detail. Here, the court provided that the polygraph testing shall be periodic, and that the purpose of the testing shall be to determine whether York is cooperating with his therapy. Further detail from the court was not required. Cf. United States v. Fellows, 157 F.3d 1197, 1204 (9th Cir.1998) (observing that a sentencing court cannot be expected to design and implement the particularities of a treatment program).
30 York next asserts that the polygraph requirement is unreasonable, and thus invalid, because polygraph tests are inherently unreliable and cannot measure whether he is in fact complying with his treatment program. York points to the Supreme Court's acknowledgment that there is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable. United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303, 309, 118 S.Ct. 1261, 140 L.Ed.2d 413 (1998). In response, the United States does not deny that polygraph technology is of doubtful reliability, but it asserts that the polygraph is nevertheless a useful tool for policing defendants' compliance with conditions of supervised release. Regardless of the device's actual ability to detect lies, the government suggests, the polygraph provides an incentive for York to pursue his treatment program honestly because he may believe that if he lies about his progress, the polygraph will expose him. At least one court of appeals has endorsed this view. See United States v. Taylor, 338 F.3d 1280, 1284 n. 2 (11th Cir.2003) (polygraph testing is useful in promoting the treatment of sex offenders because probationers fear that any false denials of violations will be detected); see also United States v. Lee, 315 F.3d 206, 217 (3d Cir.2003) (polygraph testing can be beneficial in enhancing the supervision and treatment of a sex offender). 31 The record in this case provides no factual foundation on which to evaluate these arguments. The court imposed the polygraph condition sua sponte; neither side submitted evidence on the usefulness or reliability of polygraph exams. This leaves a difficult empirical problem that appellate courts are not well suited to resolve. Perhaps polygraph technology has become more reliable in the five years since the Supreme Court's decision in Scheffer. Or perhaps it will be more reliable when York actually begins his supervised release in 2006. Or perhaps the whole theory of polygraph examinations is irredeemably flawed. Cf. Scheffer, 523 U.S. at 310, 118 S.Ct. 1261 (citing studies challenging the scientific basis for polygraph tests). Those questions are unanswerable on this record. 32 Similarly, we cannot accept on faith that polygraphs are effective at deterring lies, irrespective of their accuracy. The deterrent effect of polygraph testing, after all, is related to the reliability question: York will only be deterred from lying if he believes that a polygraph will likely expose his lies. Perhaps polygraphs, while imperfect, are reliable enough to achieve this deterrent effect. Perhaps they will be so reliable in 2006. The record provides no basis on which to make such a determination. 33 For these reasons, we decline to issue a blanket decision on the propriety of polygraph testing as a tool of supervised release. To the extent York fears that a false positive on a polygraph exam will automatically result in the revocation of his supervised release, the district court has anticipated and addressed his concerns. According to the court's order, [n]o violation proceedings will arise based solely on [the] defendant's failure to `pass' the polygraph. Given this prophylaxis, the use of a polygraph to promote York's rehabilitation is not per se unreasonable. If, after his supervised release begins, York believes that he has been prejudiced by the unreliability of a polygraph test (or by the burdensomeness of the polygraph regime as administered by the Probation Office), he is free to marshal supporting scientific evidence and petition the district court to modify the conditions of his supervised release. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(2). Until that time, any specific claim of prejudice is premature.
34 York's most potent challenge to the mandatory polygraph requirement is that it violates his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. York contends that in the course of his treatment program he will inevitably be asked incriminating questions, and that he will be compelled to answer due to the severe consequences to him of revocation: because his criminal history category is VI, York would face a minimum of eight months in prison if his supervised release were revoked. See U.S.S.G. § 7B1.4. 35 In response, the United States does not dispute that the Fifth Amendment applies in interviews with probation officers, regardless of whether a polygraph is involved. See Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U.S. 420, 426, 104 S.Ct. 1136, 79 L.Ed.2d 409 (1984). Instead, it argues that the mandatory polygraph condition does not on its face compel York to give incriminating answers. Cf. United States v. Washington, 431 U.S. 181, 188, 97 S.Ct. 1814, 52 L.Ed.2d 238 (1977) ([The] constitutional guarantee is only that the witness be not compelled to give self-incriminating testimony. (emphasis added)). 36 We begin with first principles. Nothing in the Fifth Amendment mitigates the general obligation on probationers to appear and answer questions truthfully. See Murphy, 465 U.S. at 427, 104 S.Ct. 1136. Probation officers may demand honest answers to their questions, just as prosecutors may demand truthful answers from grand jury witnesses subpoenaed to testify. See id. Further, because revocation proceedings are not criminal proceedings, York will not be entitled to refuse to answer questions solely on the ground that his replies may lead to revocation of his supervised release. Id. at 435 n. 7, 104 S.Ct. 1136. York's probation officers, by requiring him to answer such questions, will not compel him to incriminate himself within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. See id. at 427-28, 435 n. 7, 104 S.Ct. 1136. Of course, York will have a valid Fifth Amendment claim if his probation officers ask, and compel him to answer over his assertion of privilege, a particular question implicating him in a crime other than that for which he has been convicted. Id. at 426, 104 S.Ct. 1136. But York cannot mount a generalized Fifth Amendment attack on the conditions of his supervised release on the ground that he will be required to answer probation officers' questions truthfully. 37 The question, then, is whether the requirement that York submit to polygraph tests during these interviews alters the constitutional analysis. The government says that it does not, arguing that the polygraph merely enforces the general obligation on probationers to answer questions concerning their probationary status truthfully. In the government's view, the polygraph requirement adds nothing relevant to the Fifth Amendment analysis: York might have valid claims of privilege as to particular questions, but the mandatory polygraph condition on its face does not implicate York's Fifth Amendment rights. 38 In fact, the polygraph requirement may implicate York's Fifth Amendment rights, depending on how the district court's order is understood. One reading of the release condition is that it flatly requires York to submit to polygraph testing as a condition of his supervised release, so that York's refusal to answer any question — even on valid Fifth Amendment grounds — could constitute a basis for revocation. If that reading were intended, it would be constitutionally problematic. The Supreme Court has reasoned: 39 [I]f the state, either expressly or by implication, asserts that invocation of the privilege would lead to revocation of probation, it would have created the classic penalty situation, the failure to assert the privilege would be excused, and the probationer's answers would be deemed compelled and inadmissible in a criminal prosecution. 40 Murphy, 465 U.S. at 435, 104 S.Ct. 1136. 41 Sensitive to Fifth Amendment issues, the district court inserted a caveat in its order: When submitting to a polygraph exam, the defendant does not give up his Fifth Amendment rights. The government argues that this qualification obviates any concern that the polygraph requirement on its face compels York to incriminate himself. It might well have been intended to do so, but the qualification is ambiguous. The court stated only that York does not give up his Fifth Amendment rights in submitting to polygraph testing. That could mean (1) that York's supervised release will not be revoked based on his refusal to answer polygraph questions on valid Fifth Amendment grounds; (2) that York must answer every question during his polygraph exams on pain of revocation, but that his answers will not be used against him in any future prosecution; or simply (3) that York will be entitled, in any future prosecution, to seek exclusion of his answers on the grounds that the polygraph procedure forced him to incriminate himself. York objects to the second interpretation because he fears that it is ultra vires: the district court, he says, probably lacks the power to grant him immunity from future prosecutions, state or federal, based on information that he may reveal to his probation officers. And the third interpretation offers him no assurances at all. 42 The most sensible interpretation is the first, and we construe the district court's order accordingly. Under Murphy, if York can assert his Fifth Amendment privilege without risking revocation, he does not face a classic penalty situation, 465 U.S. at 435 & n. 7, 104 S.Ct. 1136, and his answers will not be considered compelled within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment unless he is forced to answer over his valid assertion of privilege, see id. at 429, 104 S.Ct. 1136. At oral argument, the government conceded that this is the best interpretation and agreed that it is acceptable; York likewise found it preferable. Construing the order in this way also guarantees that if York and his probation officers dispute whether he refused to answer a question on valid Fifth Amendment grounds, York will be entitled to a hearing before a court before any penalty can be imposed. 43 We construe the district court's order to provide that York's supervised release shall not be revoked based on his valid assertion of Fifth Amendment privilege during a polygraph examination. So construed, York's sentence, including the special conditions of supervised release, is valid. See United States v. Davis, 242 F.3d 49, 52 (1st Cir.2001) (per curiam) (construing condition of supervised release to avoid Fifth Amendment issues and upholding the sentence as construed). To the extent York raises specific Fifth Amendment objections to incriminating questions that may be asked or coercive tactics that may be employed by the Probation Office, his arguments are premature. York remains free to assert his Fifth Amendment privilege if, after he begins his supervised release term in 2006, such circumstances actually arise. See id.