On February 19, 2014, the Washington Court of Appeals for Division II heard arguments in State and A.W. v. Finch, a case in which a court ordered a sexual assault survivor to take a polygraph examination. Legal Voice filed an amicus brief in the case to argue that courts should never order sexual assault survivors to undergo polygraph exams.
We argued that forcing sexual assault survivors to take polygraph exams treats survivors like suspects and discourages crime reporting. We also presented research indicating that polygraph examinations are inherently unreliable and are particularly likely to reveal “false positives” when administered to sexual assault survivors. Our amicus brief was joined by the Sexual Violence Law Center and the National Crime Victim Law Institute. Mary Przekop and Antoinette Bonsignore provided research assistance with the brief.
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