THE ADMISSIBILITY OF POLYGRAPH TEST AS EVIDENCE

 

Muzaffar Syah Mallow

 Dr., Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Syariah & Law, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM),

Bandar Baru Nilai, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus, MALAYSIA

Email: muzaffarsyah.mallow@yahoo.com 

 

 

Abstract

It is very difficult to determine whether a person telling a truth or a lie. Currently, there is no credible method or even an instrument which can definitely assure about all the information’s given by any individual including those being suspect in criminal offence are beyond reasonable of doubt to be true. In the past, various ways mostly involving harsh ways being adopted and used to determine suspect credibility when giving information’s in order to assist the authorities to settle any disputed cases given to  them. Most common way which being adopted in order to know whether a person telling the truth or not is by looking at circumstantial evidence surrounding the fact of the case like individual personal behavior or demeanor. Authorities also sometimes rely of testimony given by an expert or professional like counsellor or anyone who are expert in the field to determine the status of information’s given by the suspect. As time progress and with the rapid development of technology, people started to create many special devices or instrument in order to smooth the administration of justice and this include by creating a special device or instrument which can used to detect human personal behavior and demeanor. Such modern device or instrument is known lie detector machine or commonly known as polygraph machine. Through this instrument, a test will be carry out by the qualified authorities to the suspect individual. This device or instrument will measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the concern individual being asked series of questions put forward by the qualified authorities. The belief underpinning the use of the polygraph is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers. Such physiological responses later being used as an evidence to build up cases and even being used as an evidence against the individual in the court of law. Several countries has adopted such instrument within their legal system and judicial proceeding. However, there have been many debates over the use of such device or instrument within the legal system and judicial proceeding. Some regards such instrument as the best way to determine whether or not a suspect is telling a truth and can be utilized as mode to deliver an evidence for legal cases. While others argued that such instrument cannot be trusted entirely and cannot be used to determine the credibility of information’s given by the suspect or witness. As such, it is the object of this paper to examining about the device or instrument itself, its historical origin and its admissibility as evidence in the court of law. References will be made to several jurisdictions including the position under Malaysian Evidence Act 1950 [Act 56] on the subject matter. 

Keywords: Polygraph, admissibility, evidence.