Cite as: 523 U. S. 303 (1998)
Stevens, J., dissenting
Reliability
There are a host of studies that place the reliability of polygraph tests at 85% to 90%.20 While critics of the poly-graph argue that accuracy is much lower, even the studies cited by the critics place polygraph accuracy at 70%.21
Moreover, to the extent that the polygraph errs, studies have repeatedly shown that the polygraph is more likely to find innocent people guilty than vice versa.22 Thus, exculpatory polygraphs—like the one in this case—are likely to be more reliable than inculpatory ones.
Of course, within the broad category of lie detector evidence, there may be a wide variation in both the validity and the relevance 23 of particular test results. Questions about the examiner's integrity, independence, choice of questions, or training in the detection of deliberate attempts to provoke misleading physiological responses may justify exclusion of
20 Raskin, Honts, & Kircher, The Scientific Status of Research on Poly-graph Techniques: The Case for Polygraph Tests, in 1 Modern Scientific Evidence 572 (D. Faigman, D. Kaye, M. Saks, & J. Sanders eds. 1997) (hereinafter Faigman) (compiling eight laboratory studies that place mean accuracy at approximately 90%); id., at 575 (compiling four field studies, scored by independent examiners, that place mean accuracy at 90.5%); Raskin, Honts, & Kircher, A Response to Professors Iacono and Lykken, in Faigman 627 (compiling six field studies, scored by original examiners, that place mean accuracy at 97.5%); Abrams, The Complete Polygraph Handbook 190-191 (1989) (compiling 13 laboratory studies that, excluding inconclusive results, place mean accuracy at 87%).
21 Iacono & Lykken, The Scientific Status of Research on Polygraph Techniques: The Case Against Polygraph Tests, in Faigman 608 (compiling three studies that place mean accuracy at 70%).
22 E. g., Iacono & Lykken, The Case Against Polygraph Tests, in Faigman 608-609; Raskin, Honts, & Kircher, A Response to Professors Iacono and Lykken, in Faigman 621; Honts & Perry 362; Abrams, The Complete Polygraph Handbook, at 187-188, 191.
23 See, e. g., Judge Gonzalez's careful attention to the relevance inquiry in the proceedings on remand from the Court of Appeals decision in Piccinonna. 729 F. Supp. 1336 (SD Fla. 1990).
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