Western Australia Court Rejects Polygraph

[George W. Maschke]

The Western Australia Court of Criminal Appeal, the highest Australian court to have considered the admissibility of polygraph evidence, has thoroughly rejected it. In a judgment filed 3 December 2003 in an appeal by Andrew Mark Mallard of his conviction for the murder of Pamela Suzanne Lawrence, the court, having heard extensive testimony from experts including Drs. Drew Richardson, Bill Iacono, John Furedy, and Charles Honts, concluded that "it has not been shown that the polygraph technique is a reliable method for determining truth or untruth..." The ruling, which addresses polygraphy at paragraphs 201-374 (pp. 62-112), may be downloaded as a 340 kb PDF file here:

http://antipolygraph.org/litigation/mallard/mallard-v-the-queen.pdf