Court Opinion

ID: 9626996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:30:35.982553+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:38.134681
License: Public Domain

KELLY, J.,
concurring:
I wholeheartedly agree with the majority’s analysis. However, I am compelled to ex*718press my distaste for the spousal privilege as it applies to situations involving the sexual abuse of a child. Specifically, I find repugnant the application of the spousal privilege where it requires a mother to remain silent concerning her husband’s admission that he sexually abused her child whom she entrusted to his care and attention.
The majority thoughtfully states that:
[Ujnder the authority of Seitz, not all spoken words between a husband and wife will enjoy the privilege under consideration here. It would seem that if the nature of the communication is not imbued with an aura of a sharing disclosure precipitated largely due to the closeness spouses share, then arguably it is not privileged. In this context it would seem logical that certain communications which, for all intents and purposes, victimize the spouse could not reasonably be expected to be kept a secret by the victimized spouse nor could they be deemed a sharing of ideas consistent with the intimacy of a marital relation....
Addressing the various general categories of communications presented in this appeal we conclude that appellant’s direct threats to injure or kill his wife do not have the aura of confidentiality which is the hallmark of the privilege. It is difficult to conclude that a threat to injure one’s spouse is made consistently with the confidentiality, intimacy and secrecy that a marital relationship inspires. Indeed, a threat of such a serious magnitude is entirely repugnant to the intimacy and confidentiality that a marital union is deemed to inspire....
For similar reasons we conclude that the direct threats to injure or kill the wife’s daughters or other family members lack the aura of confidentiality necessary to gain privileged status. In many cases the parental instinct is so strong that a parent will value the life of a child above their own. Thus, the threat to injure or kill a child should not be expected to be kept silent and it represents as great an affront to the recipient spouse as to be on a par with threats against the spouse or the taunts found in Seitz....
(Majority opinion at 711-712). Thus, under existing Pennsylvania law, a husband’s direct threats to injure or kill his spouse or her children are not privileged, as such communications lack the aura of confidentiality necessary to gain privileged status. On the other hand, a husband’s admission to his wife that he has already abused his wife’s children is protected by the spousal privilege because such an admission is “a sharing disclosure made due to the closeness of the marital relationship”? Pennsylvania law does not expect a mother to keep quiet about her husband’s threats to injure or kill her children, but expects and requires her to be silent concerning her husband’s admissions to sexual abuse that he has already inflicted upon her children. Such admissions are not only heinous, they also put the mother on notice that her children are at risk for further abuse. As the majority eloquently states “in many cases the parental instinct is so strong that a parent will value the life of a child above [his or her] own.” In my opinion, no parent should be expected to remain silent concerning sexual abuse inflicted upon his or her children especially when the abuse is at the hands of a co-parent. Pennsylvania law, however, holds otherwise. Thus, I am bound to join the majority in granting Appellant a new trial.