Court Opinion

ID: 9854413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:07:23.513367+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:04.479459
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur fully in Division 3 and in the judgment. As to Divisions 1 and 2, I agree that the evidence of the child’s statements to the grandfather, mother, and child psychologist were admissible but upon a different basis.
They are authorized by OCGA § 24-3-16, which was adopted to avoid the res gestae limitations with which the court grapples here. Admissibility under OCGA § 24-3-16 is not governed by a judicial ruling of the child’s competency to testify as a witness. It is predicated instead on the child’s availability at trial to be questioned by defendant, primarily so as to fulfill his constitutional right to confrontation. See Westbrook v. State, 186 Ga. App. 493 (368 SE2d 131) (special concurrence) (1988).
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Banke joins in this special concurrence.