Court Opinion

ID: 9548165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:58:34.661098+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:18:33.567022
License: Public Domain

Lockett, J.,
concurring: I agree with the majority that the trial judge abused his discretion in making the admissibility of Martin’s four prior inconsistent statements dependent upon also admitting the polygraph results. Such a requirement by the trial judge would evade our prior finding that polygraph tests are too unreliable to be admissible and that they tend to invade the province of the jury in determining that ultimate question of fact. The trial judge, in effect, was attempting to force the State to agree to the admission of the polygraph results in order to present Martin’s four separate inconsistent statements to the jury.
Since Martin’s last statement was given after he was advised that he had failed the first polygraph test, the fact that he had taken the polygraph test should have been admitted for the sole purpose of explaining why Martin had changed his fourth statement to the authorities. The results of the polygraph tests, however, were not admissible and those results could not be presented to the jury unless the parties voluntarily agreed that the results would be admitted into evidence.