Court Opinion

ID: 9599545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:19:31.139228+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:45.677951
License: Public Domain

WOOD, Chief Judge (specially concurring). I agree with the result reached by Judge Sutin. I disagree with the way the result is reached. Admissibility of polygraph test results. The first issue is whether the results of polygraph tests are admissible. In holding that they are admissible, Judge Sutin states that the tests are now accepted as a scientific principle. This statement appears to be in answer to Frye v. United States, 54 App.D.C. 46, 293 F. 1013, 34 A.L.R. 145 (1923). Frye had held that the scientific principle of the tests was not sufficiently established in the particular field in which it belongs. The Frye holding has been viewed as preventing the admission of polygraphic test results until there was general scientific acceptance of the tests. Another view of Frye is that polygraphic test results were inadmissible at the time Frye was decided (in 1923) because of its novelty at that time and because of the lack of acceptance at that time. On this basis, test results had little probative value. McCormick on Evidence, at 363-364 (1954). Under this view, the admissibility of test results is to be determined on the same basis used for the admissibility of any scientific evidence. McCormick, supra; United States v. DeBetham, 348 F. Supp. 1377 (S.D.Cal.1972), aff’d 470 F.2d 1367 (9th Cir. 1972), cert. denied 412 U.S. 907, 93 S.Ct. 2299, 36 L.Ed.2d 972 (1973). See also United States v. Wainwright, 413 F.2d 796 (10th Cir. 1969), cert. denied 396 U.S. 1009, 90 S.Ct. 566, 24 L.Ed.2d 501 (1970). In my opinion, this second view of Frye was the view of the New Mexico Supreme Court when it followed Frye and held test results were not admissible in State v. Trimble, 68 N.M. 406, 362 P.2d 788 (1961). Accordingly, test results are admissible if it is shown that the results do have probative value. To establish such probative value, there must be expert testimony that the test involved is an accepted one in the expert’s profession and the test has a reasonable measure of precision in its indications. United States v. Wainwright, supra. There must be evidence “demonstrative of the polygraph’s substantial reliability and acceptance.” United States v. DeBetham, supra. Thus, I would not base admissibility of the tests on the concept of “general scientific acceptance.” Rather, in my opinion, the requirement for admissibility is evidence that the tests are reasonably reliable, reasonably precise and evidence that the tests are substantially accepted by experts whose competence includes the subject matter of the tests. The tests were properly excluded in this case because there was no such evidence. Qualifications of the expert. In addition to evidence concerning reliability, precision and acceptance, there must be evidence that the polygraph examiner is an expert in giving and interpreting the tests. DeBetham, supra. The second issue in this case goes to the qualifications of the examiner. The most important factor involved in the use of any polygraph “is the ability, experience, education, and integrity of the examiner himself.” Reid & Inbau, Truth and Deception, at 4 (1966). “For, it is the examiner who must screen out the ‘unfit’ examinee, conduct the important pre-test interview (which is essential to the proper preparation of the actual test questions), and supervise the environment of the test to eliminate possible distortive influences, as well as ask the questions and interpret the resulting polygrams.” DeBetham, supra. Judge Sutin’s opinion quotes DeBetham, supra, concerning the qualifications for an examiner and holds that the examiner in this case was not qualified. Although I agree the examiner was not qualified to testify concerning test results in this case, I do so on a very limited basis. Defendant sought to introduce the examiner’s conclusions from the tests but did not produce the polygraph records in court or explain why they were not produced. Thus, the basis was missing for giving a satisfactory explanation as to how the examiner arrived at his opinion. See Dahl v. Turner, 80 N.M. 564, 458 P.2d 816, 39 A.L.R.3d 207 (Ct.App.1969). For this reason, the examiner was not qualified to testify. I cannot join in Judge Sutin’s opinion concerning the qualifications of an examiner because it utilizes (in the quotation from DeBetham, supra) standards recommended by Reid & Inbau, supra, at 257. Those recommended standards — a college degree, six months of internship training and five years experience as a specialist in the field of polygraph examinations— should not be designated as legal requirements to qualify an examiner to testify in the absence of any evidence as to the reasons for these particular standards. De-Betham, supra, points out that there is “little standardization of training among practicing polygraph examiners.” The recommended standard would require a college degree. Because of the variety of subjects that may be studied in obtaining a college degree, wouldn’t the subjects studied be of more importance than the degree itself? Could not experience provide the equivalent of formal study of those subjects? I do not suggest what the minimum qualifications should be. I do oppose a statement of minimum standards prior to a showing as to the need for those standards. I concur in the result only.