Frye v. United States
- Decided
- December 3, 1923
- Docket
- No. 3968
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 4,204 timesOverruled on other grounds (verified)Overruled on other grounds (verified) · State v. Murray
What later courts said
- holding that in order for expert scientific testimony to be admissible, it must be “generally accepted” as reliable in the relevant scientific community — State v. Moeller (2000)
- concluding that evidence did not establish testimony of Dr. Kassin on general police environment and susceptibility to false confessions was scientifically reliable — State v. Rafay (2012)
- ruling that expert opinion based on a scientific technique is inadmissible unless the technique is "generally accept[ed]” as reliable in the relevant scientific community — Veney v. United States (2007)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
VAN ORSDRP, Associate Justice.
Appellant, defendant below, was convicted of the crime of murder in the second degree, and from the judgment prosecutes this appeal.
A single assignment of error is presented for our consideration. In the course of the trial counsel for defendant offered an expert witness to testify to the result of a deception test made upon defendant. The test is described as the systolic blood pressm-e deception test. It is asserted that blood pressure is influenced by change in the emotions of the witness, and that the systolic blood pressure rises are brought about by nervous impulses sent to the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. Scientific experiments, it is claimed, have demonstrated that fear, rage, and pain always produce a rise of systolic blood pressure, and that conscious deception or falsehood, concealment of facts, or guilt of crime, accompanied by fear of detection when the person is under examination, raises the systolic blood pressure in a curve, which corresponds exactly to the struggle going on in the subject’s mind, between fear and attempted control of that fear, as the exam [*1014] ination touches the vital points in respect of which he is attempting to deceive the examiner.
Cite this
Frye v. United States, 293 F. 1013 (1923)Read the full opinion
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