Opinion ID: 2326863
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: The Admissibility of the Video of the Out-of-court Statement

Text: Finally, Page contends for the first time on appeal that the trial judge erred by admitting the video of Still's statement as an exhibit after it was determined that the statement itself was admissible. Page argues that the trial judge abused her discretion by departing from the rule this Court announced three years after Page's trial in Flonnory v. State. [48] This Court stated in Flonnory that: As a general matter, recorded or written out-of-court § 3507 statements that are played or read during trial should not be admitted as separate trial exhibits that the jury can take into the jury room during deliberations when all other testimony-including direct and cross-examination testimony of a § 3507 witness, out-of-court § 3507 statements presented by a witness other than the § 3507 declarant, and testimony presented by non § 3507 witnesses-are generally not admitted as separate trial exhibits in transcript form after the witness testifies in court. . . . The trial judge does, however, have discretion to depart from this default rule when in his judgment the situation so warrants (e.g., where the jury asks to rehear a § 3507 statement during its deliberations or where the parties do not object to having the written or recorded statements go into the jury room as exhibits). [49] We reiterate that Page failed to object at trial to the admissibility of the video of Still's 3507 statement. Our review is for plain error and we do not find it. Even under Flonnory, the trial judge in this case would have had the discretion to admit the video of the statement as an exhibit and to send it to the jury room with all other exhibits. Page's argument is without merit.