Wynn v. State

423 So. 2d 294
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 24, 1982
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 423 So. 2d 294 (Wynn v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wynn v. State, 423 So. 2d 294 (Ala. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

423 So.2d 294 (1982)

Henry Joe WYNN
v.
STATE of Alabama.

7 Div. 946.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

August 24, 1982.
Rehearing Denied October 12, 1982.
Certiorari Denied December 10, 1982.

*295 Charles Centerfit Hart and Myron K. Allenstein, Gadsden, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and J. Thomas Leverette, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Alabama Supreme Court 82-48.

TYSON, Judge.

Henry Joe Wynn was indicted for robbery in the first degree. The jury found him guilty as charged, and the trial court set sentence at forty-five years in the penitentiary. A motion for a new trial was overruled and this appeal followed.

The appellant was positively identified by Mrs. Donna Jenkins as one of two men who entered the Quick Shop where she was employed, pulled a gun, and demanded all the money in the cash register. Although appellant denied participating in the robbery and presented several alibi witnesses to account for his presence during the time of the robbery in question, the State's evidence fully supported the verdict and there is no contention here to the contrary.

I

Appellant's primary argument urging reversal raises a question of first impression in Alabama: i.e., whether the results of a lie detector test taken by the accused, and not allowed in evidence, as a matter of law, are admissible upon stipulation of the parties.

Several days prior to trial, appellant, his counsel, and the assistant district attorney agreed in open court that appellant would voluntarily submit to a polygraph test, and all parties stipulated on the record that the "results", whether "favorable or unfavorable" to appellant, "would be admissible" at trial.

During the prosecution's case-in-chief, Investigator Cecil C. Holliday, polygraph examiner for the Etowah County Sheriff's department, testified for the State. He explained the operation of the polygraph machine and began to outline his qualifications for interpreting the test results, when appellant's counsel made the following objection: (R. page 72)

"MR. HART: Your Honor,— excuse me. Doc— your Honor, the Defendant, of course, is willing to stipulate the results of the test which Mr. Holliday gave.
"MR. MOORE: Your Honor, I—
"MR. HART: But our agreement, as I understand, we didn't go into this but we are merely willing to stipulate the results of the test. But as far as stipulating anything about Doc's background or past with the polygraph, we object to that as not being relevant to what our agreement was.
"THE COURT: Overruled."

*296 After Holliday testified to his background and experience in polygraphy, he gave his opinion that polygraph examinations were "approximately 95% accurate." He then described the procedure used during his examination of appellant, and stated that appellant answered "no" to all four "relevant questions" asked during the test.[1] Holliday analyzed appellant's responses to questions 1, 3, and 4 as "deception indicated." He interpreted appellant's answer to the second question to show "no deception indicated."

His pre-trial stipulation notwithstanding, appellant now maintains that the court should not have admitted any of the polygraph evidence. In the alternative, he claims that the trial judge should have disallowed the testimony of Investigator Holliday and read to the jury the following proposed "Defense Exhibit I": (Vol. 11, R. page 360).

"STIPULATION

"In the opinion of C.C. Holliday, Polygraph Examiner for the Etowah County Sheriff's Department, based upon a polygraph test he gave, Henry Joe Wynn was not telling the truth when he denied being involved in the robbery of which he stands accused.
"You will be charged by me at the end of this trial as to the weight you shall give to this piece of evidence."

Thus, we must determine whether stipulated polygraph evidence is admissible at all, and, if so, whether the "results" stipulated in this case included all of the evidence later introduced.

We start with the recognition that Alabama, like most other jurisdictions,[2] rejects evidence derived from lie detector tests because the polygraph examination has "`not yet gained such standing and scientific recognition among physiological and psychological authorities as would justify the courts in admitting expert testimony deduced from the discovery, development, and experiments thus far made.' "Ex parte Dolvin, 391 So.2d 677, 679 (Ala.1980) (quoting Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013, 1014 (D.C.Cir.1923)). See also Stewart v. State, 398 So.2d 369 (Ala.Cr.App.), cert. denied, 398 So.2d 376 (Ala.1981); Flurry v. State, 52 Ala.App. 64, 289 So.2d 632, cert. denied, 292 Ala. 720, 289 So.2d 644 (1973); Johnson v. State, 46 Ala.App. 725, 248 So.2d 763 (Cr.App.1971).

Although there have been numerous claims to the greater accuracy[3] of the polygraph since the Frye court determined in 1923 that the testing device had not achieved general scientific acceptance, the apparatus still has its critics,[4] and our Supreme *297 Court aptly observed in 1980 that "[T]he lie detector test has not gained the required acceptance in the intervening fifty-seven years," Ex parte Dolvin, 391 So.2d at 679.

Nevertheless, among the jurisdictions which have considered the question whether to allow polygraph evidence that has been stipulated to be admissible, there is a division of authority. See generally Annot., 53 A.L.R.3d 1005 (1973); Note, Admissibility of Polygraph Data When Both Parties Have Stipulated That It Will Be Admissible, 13 Land & Water L.Rev. 613 (1978); Note, 15 Ala.L.Rev. 248 (1962). The majority of courts have allowed the evidence, either upon a theory of waiver or estoppel,[5] or upon the satisfaction of certain conditions.[6] A sizeable minority of jurisdictions, on the other hand, has determined that polygraph evidence is inadmissible at trial under any circumstances.[7]

After careful consideration of the reasoning underlying both positions, it is our judgment that stipulated polygraph evidence should be admitted under certain circumstances, as we will set out herein. We acknowledge the validity of the contrary arguments, however, and we will attempt to outline them so that, in the future, parties may be able to arrive at their stipulations with some appreciation of the difficulties involved.

The courts which have rejected lie detector evidence, even when stipulated to be admissible, base their decisions on one or more of the following factors: (A) the polygraph test is based upon an untrustworthy premise; (B) the examiners have too little training, too much discretion, and wide inconsistency in the results; (C) the jury is likely to be over-awed by the examiner's opinion; and (D) although parties may stipulate to facts, they cannot, by agreement, alter the law so as to render inadmissible evidence admissible.

A. The Polygraph

The lie detector is based on the theory that conscious deception produces involuntary responses in the autonomic nervous system, manifested by changes in blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin resistance to electric current (known as "Galvanic Skin Reflex"). See generally, J. Reid and F. Inbau, Truth and Deception— The Polygraph ("Lie-Detector") Technique (2d ed. 1977).

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423 So. 2d 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wynn-v-state-alacrimapp-1982.