Court Opinion

ID: 9773008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:34:57.273704+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:49.590086
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, concurring. I concur in the result, but not in the view that the opinion given by Dr. Van Kirk was inadmissible. The appellant denied the acts altogether and claimed the accusations were inspired by the victim’s mother in revenge for having been “jilted.” Thus, the basic fact issue was sharply controverted, and U.R.E. 702 recognizes determining a fact issue as one basis for the use of expert testimony. Whether Dr. Van Kirk’s testimony cast a relevant light on that issue, and whether its probative value outweighed any prejudice was, I believe, a matter for the trial court’s “broad discretion.” Ray v. Fletcher, 244 Ark. 74, 423 S.W.2d 865 (1968); Ark-La Gas Co. v. Maxey, 245 Ark. 15, 430 S.W.2d 566 (1968); Caldwell v. State, 267 Ark. 1053, 594 S.W.2d 24 (C.A. 1980).