ABSTRACT
The polygraph machine has, in fact, long figured within United States criminal procedure. The developers of the early devices were keen for the courts to use their technologies as part of their broader aim to found criminal investigation on scientific practice. During the 1960s and 1970s various efforts were made to codify evidence law to standardise procedures at the federal level. On hearing the final appeal, the Supreme Court held that Frye was now superseded by the Federal Rules of Evidence and that testimony without general acceptance in the designated community could potentially be presented to a jury. The judgement was affirmed and the polygraph evidence sanctioned because of Houser's prior-stipulation. The polygraph machine has been considered for admissibility again and again in the decades after 1923 and at certain times, in certain places and for certain purposes, it has successfully gained access to the criminal jury trial in some jurisdictions.
