Opinion ID: 1223896
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Right of Confrontation

Text: 23. Application of the rape shield statute and rule often implicates the opposing principles of the protection of victims of sexual crimes on one hand, and the right of the criminal defendant to cross-examine the witnesses against him on the other. Johnson, 102 N.M. at 116, 692 P.2d at 41. A defendant's right of confrontationwith its protection of the right to cross-examine, test credibility, detect bias, and otherwise challenge an opposing version of factsis a critical limitation on the trial court's discretion to exclude evidence a defendant wishes to admit. The category of rape-shield statute in which a jurisdiction falls is not relevant. See, e.g., Pulizzano, 456 N.W.2d at 333; State v. Hudlow, 99 Wash.2d 1, 659 P.2d 514, 518 (1983); cf. Demers v. State, 209 Conn. 143, 547 A.2d 28, 35-36 (1988) (holding trial court did not err in holding evidence of prior arrest for prostitution would have been admissible, and thus should have been disclosed by prosecution as relevant to credibility and probative under the circumstances of this case to the substantive issue of consent.). 24. The United States Supreme Court has reversed a state court conviction on the ground that statutory protection of witnesses from suffering humiliation on the stand may not prevent introduction of evidence of bias. See Davis, 415 U.S. at 320, 94 S.Ct. at 1112. The Sixth Amendment right to confrontation guaranteed all defendants protects a defendant's right to show bias. The analogy between the statute analyzed in Davis, and rape shield legislation is not only plain, Winfield, 301 S.E.2d at 19, it is compelling. If application of the rape shield law or rule would conflict with the accused's confrontation right, if it operates to preclude the defendant from presenting a full and fair defense, the statute and rule must yield. We conclude that Federal Rule of Evidence 412, which specifically provides that evidence is admissible if its exclusion would violate the constitutional rights of the defendant, states expressly what our rule must be construed to require implicitly.