Court Opinion

ID: 9756625
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 21:42:36.159264+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:27.101289
License: Public Domain

RAKER Judge, concurring, in which BELL, C.J., joins:
I join in the majority opinion and in the judgment. My concurring opinion is directed at Judge Wilner’s concurring opinion in which he states that, although not an issue for review before this Court, polygraph test results are per se inadmissible, unreliable, and have no evidentiary value. Conc, op. at 755-56, 912 A.2d at 635. Given the movement in the law around the country in both state and federal courts related to the admissibility of polygraph test results since Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), I think it a big mistake to take any position on an issue not properly before us, particularly one that has not been briefed nor argued.
In the federal courts, circuits that do not permit evidence of polygraph results for any purpose are now in the minority. See, e.g., United States v. Cordoba, 104 F.3d 225, 228 (9th Cir.1997); United States v. Posado, 57 F.3d 428, 434 (5th Cir.1995); United States v. Piccinonna, 885 F.2d 1529, 1535-37 (11th Cir.1989); United States v. Johnson, 816 F.2d 918, 923 (3rd Cir.1987); United States v. Mayes, 512 F.2d 637, 648 n. 6 (6th Cir.1975); United States v. Infelice, 506 F.2d 1358, *7511365 (7th Cir.1974), cert. denied sub nom., Garelli v. United States, 419 U.S. 1107, 95 S.Ct. 778, 42 L.Ed.2d 802 (1975). Although most states maintain a per se rule excluding polygraph evidence, see, e.g., State v. Porter, 241 Conn. 57, 698 A.2d 739, 773 (1997); In re Odell, 672 A.2d 457, 459 (R.I.1996) (per curiam); People v. Gard, 158 Ill.2d 191, 198 Ill.Dec. 415, 632 N.E.2d 1026, 1032 (1994); Perkins v. State, 902 S.W.2d 88, 94-95 (Tex.App.1995), New Mexico Rule of Evidence 11-707 makes polygraph evidence admissible generally without the prior stipulation of the parties and without significant restriction. The Supreme Court noted, in United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303, 118 S.Ct. 1261, 140 L.Ed.2d 413 (1998), as follows:
“[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. 1 D. Faigman, D. Kaye, M. Saks, & J. Sanders, Modern Scientific Evidence 565, n. †, § 14-2.0, and § 14-7.0 (1997); see also 1 P. Giannelli & E. Imwinkelried, Scientific Evidence § 8-2(C), pp. 225-227 (2d ed. 1993) (hereinafter Giannelli & Imwinkelried); 1 J. Strong, McCormick on Evidence § 206, p. 909 (4th ed. 1992) (hereinafter McCormick). Some studies have concluded that polygraph tests overall are accurate and reliable. See, e.g., S. Abrams, The Complete Polygraph Handbook 190-191 (1989) (reporting the overall accuracy rate from laboratory studies involving the common ‘control question technique’ polygraph to be ‘in the range of 87 percent’). Others have found that polygraph tests assess truthfulness significantly less accurately — that scientific field studies suggest the accuracy rate of the ‘control question technique’ polygraph is ‘little better than could be obtained by the toss of a coin,’ that is, 50 percent. See Iacono & Lykken, The Scientific Status of Research on Polygraph Techniques: The Case Against Polygraph Tests, in 1 Modern Scientific Evidence, supra, § 14-5.3, at 629 (hereinafter Iacono & Lykken).”
Scheffer, 523 U.S. at 309-10, 118 S.Ct. at 1265, 140 L.Ed.2d 413.
*752My point in writing this concurring opinion is not that polygraph tests are in fact reliable, or that they should be admitted into evidence, or be admissible for other purposes other than at trial. I have no idea, without an adequate record and a review of the literature and studies, how I would come out on the issue. I believe simply that whether polygraph techniques have made sufficient technological advances since Kelley v. State, 288 Md. 298, 418 A.2d 217 (1980), the seminal case on admissibility of polygraphs in Maryland, and Reed v. State, 283 Md. 374, 391 A.2d 364 (1978), the test in Maryland for admissibility of novel or scientific evidence, cannot be decided without a fully developed record below, with briefs and arguments in this Court. This case is not the one to reiterate a per se rule of inadmissibility, and certainly not the case to tell trial judges to never, never, never consider polygraph tests in exercising their discretion as to whether to grant a new trial. The issue is simply not before us.
Chief Judge BELL has authorized me to state that he joins in this concurring opinion.
WILNER, Judge, concurring in part and dissenting in part which BELL, C.J., joins in Part A only:
A.
I join in the judgment and agree entirely with the Court’s holdings that (1) the Circuit Court retained jurisdiction to consider and grant Cottman’s motion for new trial, notwithstanding the pendency of the appeal, and (2) upon the granting of that motion, the Court of Special Appeals lost jurisdiction over the appeal and had no choice but to dismiss it once informed that the new trial had been granted. I disagree, however, with the Court’s conclusion that it was not also incumbent on the appellate court to withdraw its opinion. It is true that, on rare occasions, an appellate court may consider and opine on an issue that is technically moot — where the issue is an especially important one and (1) the issue is likely to recur but because of the posture in which it is likely to recur, will usually be moot by the time it reaches an appellate *753court, or (2) for some other reason, appellate guidance is required. This case meets none of those criteria.
When the Circuit Court granted Cottman’s motion for new trial, it effectively eradicated the judgment from which the appeal was taken. The case was moot, not just because there was no effective relief that the Court of Special Appeals could grant, which is the traditional definition of mootness, but, beyond that, because there ceased to be anything for the appellate court to review. No judgment was left. It was as if the new trial had been granted before the appeal was noted or the appeal had been affirmatively dismissed before the opinion was filed. There was no important issue addressed in the opinion that was likely to recur in an equally non-appealable context and none upon which guidance from the Court of Special Appeals was necessary. The Court’s opinion had no more precedential value than a law review article. It simply recited the court’s view regarding a judgment that no longer existed. That does nothing to enhance the common law, but, rather, detracts from it. I would hold that, upon being informed of the grant of the new trial, the court was obliged not only to dismiss the appeal but to withdraw its opinion as well, and that it abused its discretion in refusing to do so.
B.
I write separately also to comment on the granting of the new trial. I agree that the trial court had jurisdiction to do what it did, and, although I realize that the correctness of its action is not before us for review, and therefore is inappropriate for consideration by the Court in resolving this appeal, there are two points that I think worthy of note that are properly the subject of a concurring opinion. The first is the apparent anomaly of providing that relief under the circumstances of this case. The case was tried non-jury and rested almost entirely on the judge’s assessment of the credibility of Detective Moore, the State’s only witness. Moore testified that, on August 14, 2002, Cottman and a female accomplice sold him a bag of cocaine. His testimony was very precise, and he identified Cottman, both later at the scene when *754uniformed officers, summoned by Moore, arrested Cottman, and in court. Cottman, who, in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain a postponement of trial, claimed an alibi defense, did not testify and offered no evidence. In announcing his verdict of guilty, the judge stated that he found Detective Moore’s testimony to be “very credible.”
Had the judge not found Moore’s testimony to be credible, he could not lawfully have convicted Cottman, for, although the drugs purchased by Moore were placed into evidence, there was no corroborating evidence of criminal agency. Yet, the court, having made that credibility determination and having sentenced Cottman to ten years in prison, offered to consider granting him a new trial if he passed a polygraph examination administered by someone trained by either the FBI or the Army Security Agency. Cottman passed a polygraph examination administered by someone not trained by the FBI or the Army Security Agency, but the judge, based on an ex parte assurance from one of his colleagues that the agent was qualified, granted Cottman a new trial nonetheless.
What strikes me anomalous about this is that, if the function of the polygraph examination was in some way to diminish Detective Moore’s credibility by showing that Cottman was not the person who sold him the cocaine — ie., to support the alibi defense for which he offered no evidence at trial — and the judge accepted the result for that purpose, which would be its only relevance, the remedy should not have been a new trial, but an acquittal, for there would then, necessarily, be a reasonable doubt as to Cottman’s guilt. The very doubt, or uncertainty, that impelled the judge to grant a new trial Constitutionally required that Cottman be acquitted. What would be left to retry?
This is just one illustration of why trial courts ought not be granting motions for new trial or making other pivotal judicial decisions based on the results of a polygraph examination. This Court has made clear, on numerous occasions, that polygraph test results are inadmissible, not because of some technical rule of evidence, but because they are unreliable. *755See Kelley v. State, 288 Md. 298, 302, 418 A.2d 217, 219 (1980); Johnson v. State, 303 Md. 487, 513, 495 A.2d 1, 14 (1985), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1093, 106 S.Ct. 868, 88 L.Ed.2d 907 (1986); Bohnert v. State, 312 Md. 266, 278, 539 A.2d 657, 663 (1988); State v. Hawkins, 326 Md. 270, 275, 604 A.2d 489, 492 (1992); Patrick v. State, 329 Md. 24, 30, 617 A.2d 215, 218 (1992). In Hawkins, we iterated that “[t]he reliability of such tests has not been established to our satisfaction,” and that “[i]n our system of criminal justice, the trier of fact is the lie detector, and we have been steadfast in disallowing that function to be usurped by a process we have not found to be trustworthy.” 326 Md. at 275, 604 A.2d at 492. Whatever their use may be for police investigation purposes or even for prosecutorial decisions, they have no evidentiary value in court.
Polygraph results are inadmissible whether offered by the State or the defendant. They cannot be used to help or hurt a defendant’s case precisely because they are untrustworthy and have no evidentiary value. It is wholly impermissible, I believe, for judges to use evidence that this Court has found, as a fact and as a matter of law, to be untrustworthy and unreliable, in making judicial decisions, even discretionary ones. If the issue had been before us, I would unhesitatingly have held that the granting of the new trial in this case was an abuse of discretion, which it was. The problem is that there is nothing, decisionally, that we can do about it.
In her concurring opinion, Judge Raker cites several Federal decisions for the proposition that “circuits that do not permit evidence of polygraph results for any purpose are now in the minority” and suggests that in light of that supposed shift in thinking about polygraph evidence, it is inappropriate to tell Maryland judges to “never, never, never consider polygraph tests in exercising their discretion as to whether to grant a new trial.”
I have several responses. The first is that my reading of the cases cited by Judge Raker does not reveal any such shift. In United States v. Cordoba, 104 F.3d 225 (9th Cir.1997), the court did not hold that polygraph results were admissible. *756Quite the contrary. The court pointed out that its firm hostility to polygraph evidence had led it, in conformance with Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (D.C.Cir.1923), to hold that such evidence was per se inadmissible, but that the Frye standard had been overruled, with respect to Federal court proceedings, by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579, 113 S.Ct. 2786, 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993). The District Court, following the Ninth Circuit precedent, had excluded polygraph evidence offered by Cordoba as per se inadmissible, and the appellate court vacated the judgment and remanded the case for the trial court to review the evidence under the Daubert standard. The Ninth Circuit court made very clear, however, that “[w]ith this holding, we are not expressing new enthusiasm for admission of unstipulated polygraph evidence” because “[t]he inherent problematic nature of such evidence remains.” United States v. Cordoba, supra, 104 F.3d at 228. It agreed with the comment of the Fifth Circuit court in United States v. Posado, 57 F.3d 428, 434 (5th Cir.1995), that “[w]e do not now hold that polygraph examinations are scientifically valid or that they will always assist the trier of fact, in this or any other individual case.”
Not only is that decision the antithesis of an endorsement of polygraph evidence, but more so is what occurred following the remand. After a two-day hearing, the District Court found that the evidence was inadmissible under Daubert — that (1) although capable of testing and subject to peer review, no reliable error rate conclusions were available for real-life polygraph testing, (2) there was no general acceptance of it in the scientific community for courtroom fact-determinative purposes, (3) there were no reliable and accepted standards, and (4) without such standards, there was no way to ensure proper protocols to measure reliability. The Ninth Circuit Court affirmed that decision. United States v. Cordoba, 194 F.3d 1053 (9th Cir.1999). In doing so, it commented that “[a] major reason why scientific debate over polygraph validity yields conflicting conclusions is that the validity of such a complex procedure is difficult to assess and may vary widely from one application to another.” Id. at 1059. It also expressly con*757firmed the District Court’s conclusion that “the relevant scientific community did not generally accept polygraph exams as being sufficiently rehable to be used as evidence in a trial.” Id. at 1061.
The other Federal cases cited by Judge Raker antedated Daubert. Whether those courts now follow the approach of the Fifth and Ninth Circuits and subject polygraph evidence to a Daubert analysis is unclear. At the very least, the preDaubert cases, absent some further inquiry, are suspect.
My second response is that any determination by the Federal courts that polygraph evidence may be admissible under a Daubert analysis is quite irrelevant. Only seven months ago, in Clemons v. State, 392 Md. 339, 896 A.2d 1059 (2006), this Court unanimously maintained its allegiance to the Frye test, as it had done four years earlier in Wilson v. State, 370 Md. 191, 803 A.2d 1034 (2002).
Finally, even if one day — some day — this Court, either by adopting the Daubert approach or by reversing our earlier cases and holding that polygraph evidence satisfies the Frye test, should conclude that such evidence is admissible, that day is not yet upon us. Were the issue before us now, absent any dramatic shift within the scientific community in the last six years, we presumably would be influenced in applying the Frye test by the statement of the Supreme Court in United States v. Scheffer, 523 U.S. 303, 309, 118 S.Ct. 1261, 1265, 140 L.Ed.2d 413, 419 (1998), that “there is simply no consensus that polygraph evidence is reliable. To this day, the scientific community remains extremely polarized about the reliability of polygraph techniques.” That statement, by the way, was made in support of a holding that Military Rule of Evidence 707, which made polygraph evidence per se inadmissible, served legitimate interests in the criminal justice process and did not unconstitutionally preclude the defendant from offering evidence in his defense.
So I adhere to the view that, until such time as this Court chooses to reverse itself and hold that polygraph evidence is reliable and admissible, trial judges should, in Judge Raker’s *758words, “never, never, never consider polygraph tests in exercising their discretion as to whether to grant a new trial.” They should no more base judicial decisions on polygraph results than on a reading of the runes or astrological charts. Given what occurred here, with great respect for Judge Raker’s view, I think this is precisely the case to make that point, at least in a concurring opinion.
Chief Judge BELL joins in Part A only of this opinion.