Opinion ID: 1158206
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: PTSD Testimony is Inadmissible to Identify Defendant.

Text: In addition to prohibiting expert testimony as to the alleged victim's credibility, the expert may not testify as to the identity of the alleged perpetrator of the crime. See Moran, 151 Ariz. at 383, 728 P.2d at 253; State v. McQuillen, 236 Kan. 161, 689 P.2d 822, 829 (1984); State v. Hudnall, 293 S.C. 97, 359 S.E.2d 59, 62 (1987). Allowing such testimony encroaches too far upon the jury's function as arbiter of the witnesses' credibility. Although a psychologist can independently evaluate the victim's allegations of sexual abuse by cross-checking her symptoms with those recognized in DSM III-R, there appears to be no similar verification for identifying the alleged abuser. The psychologist must rely in large part upon the victim's story, and allowing the psychologist to testify as to the identity of the accused serves only to repeat what the complainant told the examining expert and thus bolster her credibility. Incidental verification of victim's story or indirect bolstering of her credibility, however, is not by itself improper. All testimony in the prosecution's case will tend to corroborate and bolster the victim's story to some extent. Direct comments on the victim's credibility, however, like those by the State's experts in Marquez, are beyond the scope of permissible expert opinion testimony.