Is it a Good Idea to Take a Polygraph if Accused of a Crime in Houston, TX?

When you’re accused of a crime and know you’re innocent, you may be desperate to speed up the process of proving your innocence. If police suggest a polygraph, you might be tempted to leap at the opportunity.

As Houston, TX, criminal defense attorneys, we strongly suggest you speak to your lawyer before taking this step.

Do polygraphs help prove innocence?

There are cases where polygraph results can help provide your attorneys with the information they can use to try to get charges dropped before trial.

Yet a polygraph alone might not convince a prosecutor to drop a case. For one thing, the prosecutor knows full well that polygraph results are not admissible in Texas courts. If they feel they have a case against you, they might proceed regardless of what polygraphs say because they know you won’t work as evidence.

For another, they might believe polygraphs are junk science and have no bearing on your case.

What can go wrong with a polygraph test?

Sometimes law enforcement uses fake polygraphs to conduct interrogations. They end up gathering evidence from the defendant, and the defendant receives no exculpatory evidence at all.

Understand that your innocence will not prevent law enforcement from gathering evidence against you. For example, what you think of as an alibi may place you near a crime scene at a crucial point in an investigator’s timeline, which you do not know.

The use of lie detector tests in interrogations may be going away. Recently, the Hawaii Supreme Court said that fake lie detector results are coercive and that if they are used in interrogations, any resulting statement must be excluded from the trial. What happens in Hawaii doesn’t necessarily have a bearing on what happens in Texas, but it may hint at how the law on this issue may move in the future.

Speak to a Criminal Lawyer Today

Regardless of whether you’re strapped into a machine, police are primed to believe you’re lying no matter what you say or do. You will never talk police into “just letting you go home.”

Once you’ve been arrested, your only option is to push through the process. You’ll need help from an experienced criminal defense attorney to get good results.

Contact us to schedule a case review today, and maintain your right to remain silent until you do.

See also:

Do Confessions Automatically Lead to Convictions in Houston, TX?

Why Innocent Defendants Need Lawyers in Houston, TX

Why Houston, TX Defense Lawyers Accept Guilty Clients