the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago overturned Mark Allen Wisehart's 1983 murder conviction

the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago overturned Mark Allen Wisehart's 1983 murder conviction, ruling that a trial judge should have tried to determine whether one juror's knowledge of the polygraph test had tainted the verdict.
Wisehart, 42, was sentenced to death in Madison Superior Court in the slaying of Marjorie R. Johnson, 65, in an October 1982 robbery. In an affidavit presented at a 1994 appeal hearing, a juror said she reported for jury duty and was told court would not be held that day because Wisehart was scheduled for a polygraph test. The juror said she never learned the test's results. Polygraph results are not admissible as evidence in Indiana courts.
The Indiana Supreme Court denied Wisehart's appeal, citing a lack of evidence that one juror's knowledge of the polygraph had swayed the entire jury.
The federal court said today the trial judge should have questioned the juror to find out whether she or any other jurors had been influenced.
"From the fact that the trial resumed after the test, had she assumed that Wisehart had flunked it?" the 3-judge panel wrote.
The appeals court vacated Wisehart's conviction and directed the state to release or retry him.