United States v. Southwick

I disagree that admission of the polygraph evidence to support the background cheek of an informant was error. The majority seeks to avoid admission of the “P” word where a party opponent aims in bad faith to draw an inference that can be shown to be untrue based on evidence that a polygraph was administered. Certainly the opponent is allowed to rebut the improper inferences.

The defense theory of the case was to attack the investigation conducted by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), specifically the reliability of the informant. Of the three controlled buys of drugs from appellant,…