ABSTRACT
In 1923, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a landmark decision that defined the basic prerequisite for admitting scientific evidence and, thus, testimony by expert witnesses. Though expert witnesses have been used for centuries in Europe, they were rare in the United States until the 1920s. Although the Frye defendant lost his bid to admit polygraph results, the “general acceptance” test articulated in the case opened the door for the use of scientific evidence and expert witnesses throughout the US court system. The Frye Test requires the trial court to consider some factors before admitting expert testimony. The court must identify the witness’s expertise in a specific field of science. While the Frye Test helped define both who is an expert and what expert testimony is admissible, it was not without its problems.
