ABSTRACT
Frye v. United States† delineated the threshold requirement for the admissibility of scienti¤c evidence; this requirement became the standard recognized by most courts for the next 70 years. In Frye, the defendant was accused of second-degree murder. e defense attorney o¡ered the testimony of an expert witness to administer and interpret the results of a polygraph test. At that time, the polygraph test was conducted by measuring changes in the blood pressure of the subject as he or she answered a variety of questions. If the subject responded truthfully, there would be negligible change in blood pressure; if not, the polygraph would record a spike or dramatic change. e Frye defendant sought the admission of polygraph results to prove that he had not committed the crime.
