Court Opinion

ID: 9760564
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:00:35.054659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:13.744405
License: Public Domain

LATTIMORE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the results reached in this case by Judge Hill and Judge Keltner.
The legislature in TEX.CODE CRIM. PROC.ANN. art. 38.071, sec. 2 (Vernon Supp.1987) has created a constitutional means of balancing the need to obtain the evidence provided by children under circumstances that tend to protect the child from coercive or suggestive pressure but provide the defendant with the constitutional guarantees of “confrontation”.
Not all hearsay evidence is bad evidence. It is up to the legislature by legislation and the courts under their rule-making power to set the standards for admissibility of evidence. The legislature has properly played its part here. The trial court properly admitted the evidence complained of. There is no want of intrinsic fairplay on the part of the trial court.
No opinion is here expressed on the validity of the decisions in Buckner and Ro-mines.
I would affirm the trial court.