The main test of admissibility has been relevance and first-hand [p72] knowledge, not by whom or by what method proffered evidence was obtained.
* But I cannot accept the proposition that the petitioner is entitled to his release by way of federal habeas corpus merely because of the state courts' failure properly to verbalize the correct Fourteenth Amendment test of admissibility.
'In short, the true test of admissibility is that the confession is made freely, voluntarily, and without compulsion or inducement of any sort.' Wilson v. United States, 162 U.S. 613, 623, 16 S.Ct.
I think, as did the District Court, that in deciding that question the appropriate inquiry for the habeas corpus court is not what test of admissibility the State applied or purported to apply, but whether a confession was admitted which was in fact involuntary under Fourteenth Amendment standards.
Perry held that the test for admissibility of novel DNA evidence was a modified Frye test.
It is a test of "general admissibility," stating that: (j ust when a scientific principle or discovery crosses the line between the experimental and the demonstrable stages is difficult to define.
(This hasn't been tested in court; the memo also noted that, in effect, the agents might just keep on questioning, and live with the consequences in terms of admissibility).
This testimony was rejected when the court found after a review of the relevant academic literature that "sexual offender profile evidence is not generally accepted in the scientific community and does not meet the Frye test for admissibility". Id.
And though there was some infighting among the good old boys about procedures, FBI reports, polygraph tests and admissibility, the senators were one in their exclusionary treatment of the outsiders.
For example, rules of admissibility come into play.
