Frye v. United States refers to the Supreme Court Decision regarding scientific procedures being accepted within the scientific community.
Frye v. United States is a landmark case in the history of forensic psychology and the legal system. The case established the "Frye standard" for the admissibility of scientific evidence in court.
The case involved the use of a "lie detector" or polygraph test to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant in a criminal trial. The court ruled that the polygraph test was not generally accepted as a reliable scientific technique and therefore could not be admitted as evidence.
The Frye standard, which originated from this case, requires that scientific evidence must be generally accepted by the scientific community in order to be admissible in court. This means that the scientific technique or theory must have gained widespread acceptance and recognition among experts in the field.
The Frye standard was later superseded by the Daubert standard, which was established in the 1993 case Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals. The Daubert standard expanded the admissibility criteria to include factors such as peer review, error rates, and testability, among others.