Frye

Describe the circumstances of Mr. Frye's interview with William Marston.

Marston went to the jail on June 10, 1922 to give Frye his systolic blood pressure test, a primitive method that involved nothing more than a standard medical blood pressure cuff and a physician's stethoscope. After each question put to Frye, Marston simply took his blood pressure.

What scientific procedure/finding was called into question in Frye v. United States?

The systolic blood pressure deception test, essentially a variant of the polygraph test

What is the name of the gentleman who administered the "lie detector test?"

William Marston

When did Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals occur?

1993

When did Frye v. United States occur?

1923

What is the Frye standard or Frye test?

A test to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence. It provides that expert opinion based on a scientific technique is admissible only where the technique is generally accepted as reliable in the relevant scientific community.

What are the Federal Rules of Evidence?

Code of evidence law governing the admission of facts by which parties in the United States federal court system may prove their cases, both civil and criminal.

Which case resulted in a new standard the superceded the Frye test?

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals

What is the name of the set of rules which supplanted the Frye standard after Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals?

Federal Rules of Evidence

What are the "myths" regarding the Frye case?

Frye confessed on the advice of a friend who told him he would get part of the reward put up by the victim's family if he took the blame for the killing. Frye later repudiated his confession, as the story goes, when he learned that he had been duped. The lie detection test indicated Frye had told the truth when he denied killing the doctor. But the trial court refused to admit Marston's lie detection evidence, so Frye was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. According to the myth, the friend who had talked Frye into confessing later admitted killing the physician. As a result, Frye was freed after living three years behind bars.

What "facts" have since been uncovered regarding Frye's admission?

Frye took back his confession when his court appointed attorney, Richard V. Mattingly, told him to. By the time the case went to trial, Frye had come up with an alibi. He said he'd been visiting a woman named Essie Watson.

What were the details of Frye's arrest and with what was he charged?

On November 25, 1920, almost a year after John Larson had joined the Berkeley Police Department and a few months before he had read William Marston's article on lie detection, a young black man named James Frye shot and killed a wealthy physician, also black, in Washington, D.C. The victim, Dr. Robert W. Brown, was murdered in his office at about 8:45 in the evening. Another physician was in the office and witnessed the shooting. Frye ran out of the office with the eyewitness running after him. The chase ended abruptly however when Frye took a couple of shots at his pursuer. Since the witness didn't know Frye, the police had no idea who had committed the crime.

What must occur to meet the Frye standard?

Scientific evidence presented to the court must be interpreted by the court as "generally accepted" by a meaningful segment of the associated scientific community. This applies to procedures, principles or techniques that may be presented in the proceedings of a court case.