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Reed v. Maryland9/6/1978
testified that there was some controversy by the authorities on the question, but that the witness's experience showed that such a distinction could be made. He was then permitted to answer the question and replied that in
his opinion the hairs on both the sheet and the coat were from a white person. We believe that there was no error in permitting the witness to express his opinion on the question. The fact that there is a difference of opinion among the authorities goes to the weight of the evidence, rather than its admissibility." Id. at 32.
Yet another scientific technique of disputed reliability which has been admitted by the courts is the Nalorphine or Nalline Pupil Test to detect the use of narcotics. Moenssens et al., supra, at 280 report that it was "found that when Nalline was injected in non-users of narcotics, the pupils of the patients constricted markedly. Heavy users of narcotics, on the other hand, showed opposite pupillary responses." Problems with the process are discussed in Grupp, The Nalline Test III -- Objections, Limitations and Assessment, 62 J. Crim. L., C. & P. S. 286 (1971). Professor Grupp pointed to studies which indicated that " s identified by the Nalline Test some subjects would be falsely accused of having drugs in their system. . . . [One study] indicates that as many as nine and seven-tenths per cent of the subjects would be falsely accused of having narcotics in their systems . . . ." Id. at 292.
In spite of the many asserted limitations of the Nalline Test, evidence based on that procedure was admitted to indicate use of narcotics in People v. Williams, 164 Cal. App.2d Supp. 858, 331 P. 2d 251 (1958), one of the 28 cases cited in the majority opinion in support of the Frye test. Although the court there indicated at 860 that "the results of tests of the type here under attack, as well as opinions based thereon, are admissible only if the tests have gained acceptance in the field of learning in which they are in use," citing Frye among other cases, and, as the court put it, "Each of the People's experts did admit on cross-examination that the medical profession generally is unfamiliar with the use of Nalline and therefore it cannot be truthfully said that the Nalline test has met with general acceptance by the medical profession as a whole, general acceptance being at present limited to those
few in a specialized field who deal with the narcotic problem," the court held the evidence admissible, saying:
"Should this fact [ i.e., lack of general acceptance] render the testimony inadmissible? We believe not. All of the medical testimony points to the reliability of the test. It has been generally accepted by those who would be expected to be familiar with its use. In this age of specialization more should not be required." Id. at 862.
f. Lie detectors or polygraphs
Up to the present time courts have been nearly unanimous in rejecting testimony based on lie detectors or polygraphs. One commentator concluded "that the courts, in considering the admissibility of lie detector evidence, have not merely excluded the evidence but have judged it by a different standard than the standard which is established for determining admissibility and applied to other scientific evidence." Kaplan, supra, 10 Wayne L. Rev. at 381. This different standard originated with the first appellate decisions to consider the lie detector, Frye. The holding of that case, however, was grounded in the same principles that apply to other expert testimony; the appellate court merely refused to hold that the trial judge abused his discretion. We have heretofore fully discussed Frye together with the irony that another ma
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