Opinion ID: 2124900
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Profile Evidence

Text: Jaco next alleges that the trial court abused its discretion by refusing to allow her counsel to cross-examine Dr. Martin Keller, a doctor who treated the victim, and Dr. Jane Turner, a doctor who conducted the autopsy, about profile evidence  scientific studies and statistics concerning the propensities of different types of persons to abuse children. According to Jaco's offer of proof, Dr. Turner, drawing on her experience and review of certain studies published in authoritative treatises, journals and periodicals, would have testified: a) That children living in households with one or more male adults not related to them are at an increased risk for maltreatment, injury or death. Moreover, that these same children were subjected to abuse or even death as a result of shaking or blunt trauma. b) That scientific studies demonstrate that children living in households with adult men unrelated to them are eight (8) times more likely to die of abuse than children living with one or both biological parents. c) That most perpetrators of shaking and/or blunt trauma to children are unrelated males. d) That [a] risk factor for infant children being abused is where the child is living with a stepfather or the mother's boyfriend. e) That scientific studies have established that a common accidental injury explanation/defense offered by perpetrators is that the baby was in some form of distress, choking or not breathing and the perpetrator mildly shook the baby in a vain error to revive the baby. Expert testimony relating to profile evidence is admissible in the discretion of the trial court to describe behaviors and characteristics commonly observed in victims, e.g., State v. Silvey, 894 S.W.2d 662, 671 (Mo. banc 1995) (expert testified that he had observed several behavioral indicators in victim that were consistent with sexual abuse), or to determine the cause of an injury to a victim, e.g., State v. Candela, 929 S.W.2d 852, 865-66 (Mo.App.1996) (expert testified that victim suffered from shaken baby syndrome). However, profile evidence is not admissible to show a defendant's responsibility for injury to a victim. See id. at 866. This victim/defendant distinction is necessary to accommodate the general rule that while an expert may express an opinion regarding an ultimate issue in a case, the expert may not express an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the defendant. State v. Taylor, 663 S.W.2d 235, 239 (Mo. banc 1984). To do so, of course, would be to invade the province of the jury. Id. In acknowledgement of this rule, Jaco claims that the profile evidence here would not result or include any question that constituted an opinion of [her] guilt or innocence [and that] the evidence offered did not involve expert testimony involving any claim that [she] or Mr. Eckhoff was responsible for the injuries in question or not responsible. However, the evidence does just that. The clear inference is that an unrelated male who lived with the child, such as Eckhoff, was statistically more likely to have been responsible for the child's injuries than a related female, such as Jaco. This is indeed a comment that Eckhoff is more likely to be guilty and, conversely, that Jaco is more likely to be innocent. As such, the evidence was inadmissible.