Opinion ID: 1285087
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unavailability Issue

Text: The Appellant asserts that the lower court improperly admitted the therapist's testimony regarding the statements of the children without first determining that the children were unavailable to testify at trial. The Appellant asserts that the trial court's admission of such statements consequently violated his constitutional right to confront his accusers. [4] In syllabus point two of State v. James Edward S., 184 W.Va. 408, 400 S.E.2d 843 (1990), this Court explained: The two central requirements for admission of extrajudicial testimony under the Confrontation Clause contained in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution are: (1) demonstrating the unavailability of the witness to testify; and (2) proving the reliability of the witness's out-of-court statement. In syllabus point two of State v. Kennedy, 205 W.Va. 224, 517 S.E.2d 457 (1999), however, this Court substantially modified that holding, as follows: We modify our holding in James Edward S., 184 W.Va. 408, 400 S.E.2d 843 (1990), to comply with the United States Supreme Court's subsequent pronouncements regarding the application of its decision in Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980), to hold that the unavailability prong of the Confrontation Clause inquiry required by syllabus point one of James Edward S. is only invoked when the challenged extrajudicial statements were made in a prior judicial proceeding. In Kennedy, this Court concluded: Given the fact that the extrajudicial statement in this casethe autopsy reportdoes not involve statements given in a prior judicial proceeding, we conclude that the unavailability analysis pertinent to the Confrontation Clause inquiry under James Edward S. is not applicable. 205 W.Va. at 229, 517 S.E.2d at 462. This issue of the role of unavailability in a determination of admissibility was also addressed in State v. Pettrey, 209 W.Va. 449, 549 S.E.2d 323 (2001), a case very similar to the one at bar. In Pettrey, this Court evaluated the admissibility of a play therapist's testimony regarding statements made by two young children describing sexual abuse. This Court analyzed issues similar to those raised by the Appellant in the present case and concluded that the statements made by the children to Ms. Akers [the victim's teacher] and Ms. Hasty [the victim's therapist] were obviously not made in a prior judicial proceeding. Therefore, the unavailability analysis pertinent to the Confrontation Clause is not applicable. Id. at 457, 549 S.E.2d at 331. Likewise, the challenged statements in the case sub judice were made to the therapist after the children had revealed the abuse to their mother. Since there is no issue regarding a statement made at a prior judicial proceeding, we concluded that the unavailability issue is not relevant, and the State was not required to establish that the children were unavailable to testify prior to introducing the testimony of the play therapist regarding statements made by the children. [5]