title: Frye's Backstory: a tale of murder, a retracted confession, and scientific hubris.
abstract: The landmark case Frye v. United States is associated with the general-acceptance standard for admissibility of scientific evidence. The standard, still the law in some jurisdictions, has largely been replaced by one based on Federal Rule of Evidence 702. Although it is known from the 1923 Frye opinion's terse wording that the science in question was a systolic blood pressure deception test, the facts behind the case and the story of the device's inventor are rarely discussed. In this article we review the story of the defendant, James Alphonso Frye, and the psychologist, William Moulton Marston, who claimed he could prove that Frye had confessed falsely. The case continues to reverberate whenever scientific evidence makes a claim of finding the truth.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Weiss is Clinical Associate Professor, Dr. Watson is Clinical Assistant Professor, and Dr. Xuan is a Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. kenweiss@mail.med.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Dr. Weiss is Clinical Associate Professor, Dr. Watson is Clinical Assistant Professor, and Dr. Xuan is a Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Clarence
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.affiliation: Dr. Weiss is Clinical Associate Professor, Dr. Watson is Clinical Assistant Professor, and Dr. Xuan is a Fellow in Forensic Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xuan
mesh_terms: D008192:Deception; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry; D006708:Homicide; D006801:Humans; D008014:Lie Detection; D008297:Male; D014342:Truth Disclosure