Opinion ID: 2509517
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Issues Relating to the Admissibility of Prosecution Evidence of Children's Reactions to Sadistic Molestation

Text: Dr. Chris Hatcher interviewed children who had been sadistically molested, and on the basis of that experience described the stages such children go through. In the first stage, he said, the children felt that the experience is unreal, like watching a television show. Then the children realize that they are in danger and try to avoid it by making friends with the abductor. In the last stage the horrified children are filled with shame at the sodomy and increasingly aware that they may be killed.

Defendant contends that the admission of Dr. Chris Hatcher's testimony concerning the experiences of child victims violates Evidence Code section 702, which provides that the testimony of a witness is inadmissible unless based on personal knowledge. Dr. Hatcher, however, was testifying as an expert witness pursuant to Evidence Code section 801, and Evidence Code section 702 by its terms does not apply to such testimony. Defendant, however, points out that Evidence Code section 801 only permits expert testimony on a subject that is sufficiently beyond common experience that the opinion of an expert would assist the trier of fact. He argues that the experiences of child victims of violent sexual assaults are not sufficiently beyond common experience that expert assistance is required. We disagree. Only a fraction of the general population, and presumably none of the jurors, has been personally victimized. Of course a juror can try to imagine what it would be like for a child to experience such an assault, but this kind of imagining does not substitute for expert testimony.
Defendant contends that Dr. Hatcher's testimony should have been excluded under Evidence Code section 352 as more prejudicial than probative. This is an exact counterpart to his argument that Dr. Hatcher's testimony about the characteristics of perpetrators should have been excluded under section 352, and it is rejected on the same grounds. (See ante, 25 Cal. Rptr.3d at 569-570, 107 P.3d at 241-242.)
Defendant argues that the admission of Dr. Chris Hatcher's testimony violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal Constitution. He contends that the federal Constitution requires an individualized death penalty determination (see Woodson v. North Carolina (1976) 428 U.S. 280, 304, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 49 L.Ed.2d 944), making testimony about the suffering of victims of other crimes inadmissible. We recognize that the jury could not properly punish this defendant for other perpetrators' crimes, but the evidence at issue was not introduced or used for that purpose. Dr. Hatcher's testimony was admissible because the jury could infer that here the victim's experiences were similar to those of victims of other violent molestations, and consider whether to impose the death penalty because of the circumstances of this crime. Finally, defendant claims that Dr. Hatcher's testimony was so inflammatory that its admission denied him due process of law. (See People v. Boyette (2002) 29 Cal.4th 381, 444, 127 Cal.Rptr.2d 544, 58 P.3d 391.) But penalty trials are different from guilt trials. Emotional appeals are allowed, and evidence that arouses emotions, including evidence of the suffering of the victims and their families, is generally admissible. (See People v. Taylor (2001) 26 Cal.4th 1155, 1171-1172, 113 Cal. Rptr.2d 827, 34 P.3d 937; People v. Bittaker (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1046, 1110, fn. 34, 259 Cal.Rptr. 630, 774 P.2d 659.) Evidence may be excluded under the due process clause or Evidence Code section 352 if it is unduly inflammatory ( People v. Box, supra, 23 Cal.4th at p. 1201, 99 Cal.Rptr.2d 69, 5 P.3d 130), but that language refers to an extreme situation. Evidence relating to the suffering of the victim and prosecutorial comment on that suffering are appropriate in death penalty cases. (See People v. Wrest (1992) 3 Cal.4th 1088, 1107-1108, 13 Cal.Rptr.2d 511, 839 P.2d 1020; People v. Edwards, supra, 54 Cal.3d 787, 852, 1 Cal. Rptr.2d 696, 819 P.2d 436 (conc. & dis. opn. of Mosk, J.).)