Court Opinion

ID: 9717197
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:59:56.029325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:51.959929
License: Public Domain

Jim Hannah, Chief Justice, concurring. I concur in the decision to reverse and remand this case for a new hearing on the admission of evidence of prior sexual abuse suffered by M.A.D. However, I write separately because the decision on admissibility of the evidence by the circuit court and this court is premature. Denver Lee Townsend impermissibly sought a decision of the circuit court on admission of evidence to counter arguments and inferences that the State might make at trial. On appeal, the State seeks and obtains an impermissible advisory opinion, again based on hypothetical events at a trial that has not yet been held. This case does not present a controversy on admission of evidence of prior sexual abuse that may be decided before trial. Townsend is charged with the rape of six-year-old M.A.D. He argues before this court that he moved for admission of the evidence out of concern that “the State may argue or the jury may infer, that knowledge of an explicitly sexual nature is not generally understood by a child as young as M.A.D.....” (emphasis added). He argued below in the motion under the rape-shield statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 16-42-101 (Repl. 1999), that the evidence was “relevant because the State may argue” (emphasis added) that a child of the victim’s age “would not have the sexual knowledge that she has unless she had been abused by the defendant.” He further argued below that the evidence was “relevant to show the reason” that a child of the victim’s age “would make such allegations, a question often posed to the jury by the State.”1 However, as yet, M.A.D. has not testified, and we have no way of knowing if she will testify in such a way as to convey what the majority refers to as a “precocious knowledge of sexual matters.” Further, we have no way of knowing if the State will argue at trial that M.A.D.’s knowledge, which is as yet unknown and undefined, constitutes an inference that Townsend raped her. The circuit court erred in granting the motion to admit evidence of the prior sexual abuse before there was a controversy on which to judge its relevancy and admissibility. The majority engages in the same error in ruling before M.A.D. testifies and the State puts on its evidence and argument that the evidence is inadmissible. The majority opinion is advisory. As yet, we have no idea of whether the evidence of the prior sexual abuse may become relevant and admissible under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-42-101 (Repl. 1999). The purpose of the rape-shield statute is to protect victims of rape or sexual abuse from the humiliation of having their personal conduct, unrelated to the charges pending, paraded before the jury and the public when such conduct is irrelevant to the defendant’s guilt. Standridge v. State, 357 Ark. 105, 161 S.W.3d 815 (2004); Flurry v. State, 290 Ark. 417, 720 S.W.2d 699 (1986). What Townsend argues is at issue, is not M.A.D.’s conduct but rather Billy Kingrey’s sexual assault of a four-year-old child. However, M.A.D. will certainly suffer emotional distress from being forced to relive this past abuse. If the evidence at trial results in the circuit court, under the requirements of the rape-shield statute, concluding that evidence of Billy Kingrey’s prior conviction of raping M.A.D. is relevant to Townsend’s guilt and is admissible, the concern about embarrassing M.A.D. should be addressed by the circuit court, perhaps by stipulation of the prior conviction, or having a third person introduce the conviction order. The ruling by the circuit court on the evidence before trial and ordering that Townsend could raise the issue with M.A.D. and other witnesses was inconsistent with the rape-shield statute. The decision by the circuit court was likely reached because under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-42-101(c)(l) (Repl. 1999), a criminal defendant may bring a written motion “at any time prior to the time the defense rests stating that the defendant has an offer of relevant evidence prohibited by subsection (b) of this section and the purpose for which the evidence is believed to be relevant . . . .” Pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 16-42-101 (c)(2)(A) (Repl. 1999), the circuit court is to hold an in camera hearing on the motion “no later than three (3) days before the trial is scheduled to begin, or at such later time as the court may for good cause permit.” It is the defendant’s responsibility to pursue the motion and bring the matter of a hearing to the court’s attention. Overton v. State, 353 Ark. 697, 120 S.W.3d 76 (2003). Townsend did so, and had he failed to do so before trial, the State might argue that he waived the right to raise the issue later. However, the statute allows the defendant to raise the issue at any time prior to the defense resting and allows for a hearing. Likely, Townsend moved before trial out of an abundance of caution. Townsend’s concerns are strictly prospective and as yet hypothetical. The decision in the circuit court was impermissibly based on what Townsend anticipated the State might do and what knowledge M.A.D. would display at trial. Under the facts of this case, it will only be at trial that a justiciable controversy will arise; accordingly, this court’s decision on admissibility of the evidence of the prior abuse on appeal is merely advisory. It is not the practice of this court to anticipate future litigation and issue advisory opinions. Wright v. Keffer, 319 Ark. 201, 890 S.W.2d 271 (1995). The better approach is for the circuit court to take the motion under advisement and wait until trial so that rulings may be made on each issue as a controversy arises. This will allow the circuit court to directly address each issue as it arises and tailor any admission to comply with the protection M.A.D. should be afforded. The State is clearly on notice of the possibility that making an argument or eliciting any testimony that suggests that any knowledge of sexual matters that M.A.D. expresses may make some evidence of the prior abuse relevant to Townsend’s guilt in the present case.2 If the State argues that M.A.D.’s knowledge of sexual matters infers Townsend’s guilt, he might move to admit evidence of the prior abuse to counter that argument by showing her knowledge may have other origins. It is simply impossible to decide in advance of trial under these facts that no evidence of the prior abuse will be relevant and admissible under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-42-101. The majority’s opinion is advisory, and the circuit court should hold the motion under advisement and decide issues of admissibility of evidence of prior abuse as they arise at trial.   Townsend also argued below that the evidence of the prior abuse is relevant to the question of the victim’s credibility. Credibility concerns the question of whether and to what extent a witness is to be believed by the trier of fact. See, e.g., Polk v. State, 348 Ark. 446, 73 S.W.3d 609 (2002). Obviously, because Townsend professes his innocence, he must argue that the victim is mistaken or lying when she says that he raped her. It seems unlikely that evidence of the prior abuse by Kingrey, which is not disputed by Townsend, will cast light on the victim’s credibility. However, as with the questions of what the State might argue or what questions the State often poses to the jury, the issue is purely anticipatory and is not ripe for review.    Similarly, any medical evidence that may be offered which Townsend believes attributes to him physical evidence of abuse committed by Kingrey is an issue that has not yet been raised and should be decided only if and when the issue arises.