Buckley v. State

In Buckley v. State, 46 S.W.3d 333, 336 (Tex. App.--Texarkana 2001, pet. dism'd, untimely filed), the Court described a two-step analysis in considering the propriety of questions eliciting testimony concerning a polygraph examination: "(1) whether the question exhibited bad faith by being designed to elicit that a polygraph was taken or what the results of that polygraph were; (2) whether the effect of the evidence is to impeach the defendant's defensive theory or to bolster the state's case." Buckley, 46 S.W.3d at 337. The girlfriend of the defendant in that case testified, in relating things Buckley had said to her, that Buckley accused her of telling people he had failed a polygraph test. The trial court overruled the defense's motion for mistrial and instructed the jury to disregard the statement. Finding that the "statement did not reflect the results of such a test or even whether Buckley took such a test," we held the witness' inadvertent statement was properly cured by the trial court's instruction to disregard and overruled the point of error. Id.