Opinion ID: 1060657
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: cases cited by majority

Text: The majority cites the following cases for the proposition that the constitutional right to present a defense has been held to `trump' a number of other state and federal rules of procedure and evidence including the prohibition of the state rape shield statutes: State v. Jalo, 27 Or.App. 845, 557 P.2d 1359 (1976); Commonwealth v. Black, 337 Pa.Super. 548, 487 A.2d 396 (1985); Tague v. Richards, 3 F.3d 1133 (7th Cir.1993); United States v. Begay, 937 F.2d 515 (10th Cir.1991). These cases are readily distinguishable from the case now before us and did not involve issues concerning hearsay evidence. The cited cases hold that evidence generally precluded by a rape shield law may be admissible if the State either opens the door for admission of the evidence or if the evidence is offered for purposes other than to show the victim's moral defect or consent. See generally Jalo, 557 P.2d at 1361 (motive); Black, 487 A.2d at 400 (bias or motive). The State may open the door for evidence concerning a victim's prior sexual behavior by presenting expert evidence of an injured hymen or other evidence indicating that a victim has been sexually penetrated. See generally Tague v. Richards, 3 F.3d 1133 (7th Cir.1993); United States v. Begay, 937 F.2d 515 (10th Cir.1991). The key distinction between these holdings and the case now before us is that the proffered evidence of prior sexual contact in the above cases was precluded only by the rape shield laws but was otherwise admissible under the general rules of evidence. The majority's conclusion that the defendant was denied a right to present testimony of an alternative theory explaining the hymenal tear may have been correct pursuant to the above cases if, and only if, the defendant was prohibited, once the condition of the hymen was made an issue, from asking the victim in this case on cross-examination whether she had previously had consensual sexual contact. The mere fact that evidence is not precluded by a rape shield law does not automatically entitle the defendant to present the evidence in a rape trial. The evidence must still otherwise be admissible. Accordingly, the above-cited holdings would not allow admission of inadmissible hearsay and are limited to otherwise admissible evidence being admitted under narrow exceptions to the rape shield laws.