The Admissibility of Polygraph Evidence in Court-Martial Proceedings.
Abstract
The Department of Defense exhibits a love-hate relationship with the polygraph machine. Although military examiners have performed over 370,000 polygraph examinations since 1981, not one was admitted into a military court-martial after 1991. At that time, the President promulgated Military Rule of Evidence 707, which declared that polygraph evidence was per se inadmissible in a military court-martial. However, when the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces announced the decision of United States V. Scheffer, 44 M.J. 442 (C.A.A.F. 1996), it declared that the per se exclusion of polygraph evidence, offered by the accused to rebut an attack on his credibility, without providing him an opportunity to lay a foundation for admission, violated his Sixth Amendment right to present a defense. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to the case and should hear oral arguments in the fall of 1997.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 11, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA360055
Entities
People
- John A. Carr
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology