Court Opinion

ID: 9717219
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:00:18.743545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:52.054532
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER, dissenting: Respectfully, I must dissent. It is well-established that a criminal defendant’s right to present witnesses in his defense is a fundamental right guaranteed by the compulsory process clause of the sixth amendment to the Federal Constitution. (See U.S. Const., amend. VI; Taylor v. Illinois (1988), 484 U.S. 400, 98 L. Ed. 2d 798, 108 S. Ct. 646.) Section 115 — 7.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963 (Code) provides in relevant part that no court may require or order a witness who is the victim of an alleged sex offense to submit to or undergo either a psychiatric or psychological examination. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 115 — 7.1.) The purpose of this statute is to prevent defense attorneys from harassing complainants by forcing them to submit to such an examination in order for the defense to attempt to attack a complainant’s credibility or competency to testify at trial. In the instant case, however, the majority’s application of the statute leads to an unjust and unreasonable result unintended by the legislature. In ascertaining the legislature’s intention, the entire statute must be considered, as well as the evil to be remedied and the object to be attained. (People v. Jones (1985), 134 Ill. App. 3d 1048, 481 N.E.2d 726.) Those cases interpreting this statute have applied it primarily to the issue of whether the complainant was competent to testify at trial. In contrast, the majority here interprets the statute as allowing the State to examine a complainant for symptoms of rape trauma syndrome, and, when such symptoms are found, to close off any attempt by the defendant to have an expert likewise examine the complainant. As such, it would be an unjust result to allow the State to open the door to such testimony and still retain the ability to shut the door on any subsequent attempt by the defendant to counter such testimony. Furthermore, in the instant case, the defendant did not request to have his expert examine the complainant for purposes of showing that she is incompetent to testify at trial. Rather, the basis of the defendant’s request is to allow for the possibility of impeaching the testimony of the State’s expert witness regarding rape trauma syndrome. Thus, in stark contrast to those cases interpreting section 115 — 7.1, the defendant’s actions in the instant case cannot be described as a matter of harassing the complainant. Therefore, I find the trial court’s reliance on the above-mentioned statute to be misplaced. Moreover, the Indiana Supreme Court recently addressed a similar issue in Henson v. State (Ind. 1989), 535 N.E.2d 1189. In Henson, the court reversed the defendant’s sexual-offense convictions and remanded the case for a new trial due to the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s attempt to use expert testimony to show that the complainant’s conduct was inconsistent with rape trauma syndrome. The court found that it would be fundamentally unfair to allow the use of rape trauma testimony by the State and then deny its use by a defendant. The court further found the trial court’s ruling impinged upon the substantial rights of the defendant to even present a defense. In addition, section 115 — 7.2 of the Code provides in relevant part that in a prosecution for an illegal sexual act perpetrated upon a victim, expert testimony by a behavioral psychologist, psychiatrist or physician relating to any recognized and accepted form of post-traumatic stress syndrome shall be admissible as evidence. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1989, ch. 38, par. 115 — 7.2.) If the State, following section 115 — 7.2, can interview a complainant for purposes of making a professional expert judgment as to whether she suffers from rape trauma syndrome, then certainly the defense should be allowed to make a similar examination of the complainant for this limited purpose. If the legislature meant for section 115 — 7.2 to be employed solely by the State, they could have said so. I also disagree with the majority’s application of the harmless error rule to this issue. Many jurisdictions recognize that testimony about rape trauma syndrome is highly prejudicial because it tends to incriminate the defendant in the eyes of the jury by creating the inference that the complainant was raped. (See People v. Taylor (1990), 75 N.Y.2d 277, 552 N.E.2d 131; State v. Black (1987), 109 Wash. 2d 336, 745 P.2d 12; People v. Bledsoe (1984), 36 Cal. 3d 236, 681 P.2d 291, 203 Cal. Rptr. 450; State v. Saldana (Minn. 1982), 324 N.W.2d 227.) The instant case hinged upon the credibility of the witnesses. Unlike those cases cited by the majority, the record here does not include substantial or even minimal corroboration of the complainant’s charges, and there was a long delay between the dates of these purported acts and the actual reporting of them to the authorities. Further, I find the complainant’s testimony to be less than clear and convincing. It is significant, moreover, that the jury also considered the testimony of the State’s witness regarding the complainant having the symptoms of rape trauma syndrome. In a close case such as this, considering the highly prejudicial nature of the expert testimony, it can hardly be considered harmless error to allow the State to present rape trauma syndrome testimony to the jury while denying the defendant the same opportunity. In addition, although the issue of the admissibility of rape trauma syndrome testimony was not presented, I find such testimony to be highly prejudicial. I agree with the substantial number of jurisdictions that refuse to allow such testimony to be presented at trial. The major import of such testimony is to significantly enhance the credibility of the complaining witness to such a degree that it takes away a primary function of the jury. The trial is a truth-seeking vehicle rather than a forum for gamesmanship. (R. Ruebner, Illinois Criminal Procedure 245 (1987).) In the instant case, denying the defendant the opportunity to have an expert examine the complainant to possibly counter the rape trauma syndrome testimony does little to enhance the pursuit of truth in the courtroom and creates juror confusion at the expense of due process. Accordingly, due to the inherently prejudicial effect of the rape trauma testimony by the State’s expert, I find the denial of the defendant’s attempt to examine the complainant with one of his experts to be reversible error. For these reasons, I must respectfully dissent.