Simmons v. State

“In criminal prosecutions, the polygraph test is a pariah; ‘polygraph’ is a dirty word.” State v. Hawkins, 326 Md. 270, 275, 604 A.2d 489, 492 (1992). In this case, we consider whether defense counsel’s reference, during opening statement, to his client’s willingness to take a lie detector test creates manifest necessity for a mistrial, where the trial judge gave a curative instruction to the jury immediately following the improper reference and the prosecutor did not request a mistrial for reason of that improper remark until two days further into the trial. We shall affirm the judgment of…