Court Opinion

ID: 9627684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:50:29.572583+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:48.788371
License: Public Domain

TROUT, C.J.,
concurring in the result of Part II and concurring fully in the balance:
The Court holds that the trial court acted within its discretion when excluding the polygraph results. In support of this conclusion, the Court reasons: (1) that the trial court found that the polygraph results would not assist the jury in understanding a fact in issue, and (2) it properly relied on State v. Fain, 116 Idaho 82, 774 P.2d 252 (1989). I agree that the trial court acted within its discretion for the first reason noted above. I write only to indicate my opinion that the Fain decision should not be read too broadly.
In Fain the Court also held that the trial court acted within its discretion when refusing to admit the results of a polygraph test. Id. at 86-87, 774 P.2d at 256-57. However, citing cases from a number of federal and state jurisdictions, the Court added:
The foregoing authorities reflect the prevailing judicial view that the physiological and psychological bases for the polygraph examination have not been sufficiently established to assure the validity or reliability of test results. While scientific developments may one day refine the polygraph examination so that the results of the test may more frequently merit admission into evidence, we will not now overturn the trial court’s exclusion absent a stipulation by both parties.
Id. at 87, 774 P.2d at 257.
Moreover, I.R.E. 702, not Fain in particular, establishes the criteria for analyzing the admissibility of expert testimony concerning the results of a polygraph examination. See State v. Faught, 127 Idaho 873, 876, 908 P.2d 566, 569 (1995). Rule 702 provides:
If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise.
Because technology is ever expanding, the case may one day arise where polygraph examinations have attained a sufficient degree of reliability. In such a ease, a trial court should admit the results of that examination if they “will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue.”
Justice KID WELL concurs.