Court Opinion

ID: 9534389
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:39:06.327167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:30:28.691346
License: Public Domain

Coleman, J.
(concuring in part, dissenting in part). We concur in that part of Justice Williams’ opinion which precludes the use of polygraph test results in a criminal trial, but dissent as to that portion which would allow such use in post-trial proceedings. Use of polygraph results introduces unreliable (all agree) but influential information. It could complicate, confuse and extend the proceedings. It would bring closer the spectre of "Big Brotherism”.
If experimentation in polygraph testing is desirable, the experimenting should not take place in a court of law.
We would affirm the trial court.
I
This case has produced an unusual alliance. As amici, the Prosecuting Attorneys Appellate Service (PAAS), the State Appellant Defender Office (SADO) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) agree that polygraph tests should not be admitted in evidence in post-trial proceedings. This unexpected unanimity alone should check any personal impulse to cause use of polygraph results in court, particularly at this stage of development.
Justice Williams believes "admission of the pol*422ygraph at a post-conviction hearing for a new trial would not set a pattern for admissibility at trial”. The ACLU and SADO question whether admitting polygraph results at post-trial hearings can be separated from admission during trial. We share their concern. Call it what you will — "a foot in the door”, "a camel’s nose under the tent” — limited admission may easily become general. The material is so unreliable that introduction of even a small quantity could do great harm.
We are not dealing with mechanical, objective, scientifically verifiable determinations. The polygraph machine only records responses. The determination is made by the operator. PAAS argues that the "most critical factor in obtaining accurate polygraph results is the reliability of the examiner”. SADO says it is "the pivotal role of the polygrapher’s intuition in the test process which distinguishes the polygraph technique from other types of scientific evidence”. The ACLU notes "the possibility of great inconsistency in those many difficult cases in which results admittedly turn as much on the examiner’s skill in assessing the whole testing situation as on his reading of the charts”.
Justice Williams notes there are "serious scientific questions * * * about the ability to evaluate the polygraph at all”. Operators’ "decisions appear to be highly judgmental and ad hoc”. He concludes that "the technique is yet too questionable to satisfy the high evidentiary requirement of our state”.
We agree. Polygraph results are not competent evidence. A court should not admit them in evidence during a court proceeding — pre-trial, trial, post-trial. The results are so unreliable yet potentially so influential that we cannot afford to experiment with them.
*423II
This is not a stand against progress or experimentation. However, introducing polygraph results into a criminal proceeding is an experiment much different from preserving testimony on video tape or computerizing court dockets. Polygraph results are viewed as determinations of truth, as findings of yes or no, true or false, innocent or guilty. These are the essential products of any criminal proceeding. Yet the proofs are that polygraph results are not reliable. Ipso facto, they should not be introduced.
The argument that a motion for a new trial requires lesser standards of proof than a trial itself and, therefore, we should experiment with an admittedly unreliable source of evidence, is unpersuasive.
Ill
There is another reason why courtroom polygraph use is unwise. The orderly administration of justice is of significance to all of us, including defendants. Introduction of polygraph tests, even at post-trial hearings, would produce another trial. The polygraph operator would be the person tried. His (or her) qualifications, his conduct, his conclusions would be disputed. This is a natural result as the test results depend upon the operator’s technique, intuition and judgment. Although not dis-positive, this "experiment” would also open another avenue of appeal.
IV
Finally, the ACLU raises an issue more humanistic than juristic but disturbing nonetheless. It *424says "the polygraph threatens to impair human dignity * * * by treating the defendant * * * as an object to be operated upon, tested in a laboratory, probed for evidence which will either convict or acquit him”. Reliability aside, foreign courts have rejected polygraph tests because they infringe upon an individual’s privacy and dignity. It is no answer to say the tests are voluntary. Those refusing the tests will be suspect. Their testimony could be discredited before it is even heard.
We see this as the first step to an unknown destination. It may begin a journey which, on arrival, we will regret having ever started.
We would affirm.