Opinion ID: 1180863
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Stipulation to polygraph results and related testimony

Text: (46) Defendant claims trial counsel should not have stipulated to the admissibility of the results of the August 23, 1978, polygraph examination. On this record, we believe it reasonable to assume that counsel stipulated to the admissibility of the polygraph results for tactical purposes: defense psychiatrists testified that defendant volunteered to take the examination because he knew he would fail and wanted to be caught. The claim was that defendant wanted to stop raping and killing women, and the only way he could accomplish this was to expose himself, to draw attention to himself, to turn himself in. Evidence that defendant voluntarily submitted to a polygraph examination, knowing that he would fail the test, supported the defense theory. [15] We also note that it is not reasonably probable a more favorable result would have been reached in the absence of the stipulation; defendant's confession to Eoff, combined with the testimony of defendant's friends and with the other properly admitted evidence obtained after defendant's arrest, strongly supported the convictions. For similar reasons, we reject the claim that trial counsel should have objected to Detective Brewer's testimony that defendant was the only person who failed the polygraph examination. And again, we cannot conclude that this testimony affected the verdict.