KOBTV.com has published the following brief Associated Press report:
(Santa Fe-AP) — The state Supreme Court has ruled that polygraph test results can continue to be used as evidence in New Mexico courts.
New Mexico has allowed the use of lie detector results in courts for decades.
However, the Supreme Court has been considering whether to change its rule.
In a 30-page ruling, the court reaffirmed its rule and said polygraph test results are sufficiently reliable to be used as evidence in trials.
The state attorney general’s office had argued that polygraph tests were unsound science and should be excluded as evidence.
The Supreme Court makes rules for other New Mexico courts to follow.
The court’s ruling came in five consolidated criminal cases.
In a trial, polygraphs are sometimes uses to verify the truthfulness of witnesses and their testimony.
In endorsing the continued admissibility of polygraph “evidence,” the New Mexico Supreme Court chose to ignore the conclusions of District Judge Richard J. Knowles, whom the court had earlier directed to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding polygraph testing. After reviewing a large body of documentary evidence and hearing testimony from experts, Judge Knowles concluded that “[t]he results of polygraph testing are not sufficiently reliable for admissibility in courts in New Mexico.” His report, (New Mexico Supreme Court No. 27,915) may be downloaded as an 869 kb PDF file here.