Court Opinion

ID: 5173567
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-02 05:14:16.103249+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:26:05.374420
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Justice,
dissenting.
I concur with the result here and with the opinion of Justice Bakes, except part III upholding the admissibility of Brian’s hearsay statements to his mother and to the psychotherapist, Sorini.
I also note that it is my opinion that to the extent that I.C. § 19-3024 attempts to prescribe the admissibility of hearsay evidence and is in conflict with the Idaho Rules of Evidence, it is of no force or effect. I.R.E. 802 and 1102.
Once the trial court ruled that the child was not qualified to testify, the trustworthiness requirement of I.R.E. 803(24) and 804(b)(5) was not present. As the Rhode Island Supreme Court said in a similar case:
When a trial justice has ruled a witness incompetent to testify because the justice is not convinced that the witness is capable of relating a capacity to observe, to recollect, to communicate, or to appreciate truthfulness, the justice has already made the determination that the witness’s assertions are unreliable. Though there may be instances in which a witness is competent at the time he or she makes an assertion and later, at the time of trial, due to the onset of senility or mental illness, is incompetent, such does not hold true with infants. If an infant is ruled incompetent at the time of trial because she is only four years old, assertions made by that infant a year earlier cannot be considered inherently more reliable. Logic dictates that, if anything, they are less reliable.
This court recognizes that with certain crimes the evidence is sometimes so concealed that it is nearly impossible to present enough legal evidence to sustain a conviction. Nonetheless, such instances do not warrant admitting statements by an incompetent witness untested by cross-examination into evidence where the liberty of one charged with a serious crime hangs on the balance. ... Under our system of justice it is far better to have many guilty persons go free than to have one innocent person be wrongly accused.
State v. Paster, 524 A.2d 587, 590-91 (R.I. 1987).
*703Also, it is my opinion that before we allow hearsay statements made by children in cases such as this, we should require procedures such as that contained in Rule 807 of the Model Rules of Evidence.
Rule 807. Child Victims or Witnesses
(a)A hearsay statement made by a minor who is under the age of [12] years at the time of trial describing an act of sexual conduct or physical violence performed by or with another on or with that minor or any [other individual] [parent, sibling or member of the familial household of the minor] is not excluded by the hearsay rule if, on motion of a party, the minor, or the court and following a hearing [in camera], the court finds that (i) there is a substantial likelihood that the minor will suffer severe emotional or psychological harm if required to testify in open court; (ii) the time, content, and circumstances of the statement provide sufficient circumstantial guarantees of trustworthiness; (iii) the statement was accurately recorded by audio-visual means; (iv) the audio-visual record discloses the identity and at all times includes the images and voices of all individuals present during the interview of the minor; (v) the statement was not made in response to questioning calculated to lead the minor to make a particular statement or is clearly shown to be the minor’s statement and not the product of improper suggestion; (vi) the individual conducting the interview of the minor is available at trial for examination or cross-examination by any party; and (vii) before the recording is offered into evidence, all parties are afforded an opportunity to view it and are furnished a copy of a written transcript of it.
(b) Before a statement may be admitted in evidence pursuant to subsection (a) in a criminal case, the court shall, at the request of the defendant, provide for further questioning of the minor in such manner as the court may direct. If the minor refuses to respond to further questioning or is otherwise unavailable, the statement made pursuant to subsection (a) is not admissible under this rule.
(c) The admission in evidence of a statement of a minor pursuant to subsection (a) does not preclude the court from permitting any party to call the minor as a witness if the interests of justice so require.
(e) The requirements for admissibility of a statement under this rule do not preclude admissibility of the statement under any other exception to the hearsay rule.
I would reverse the conviction here also on the basis of the admission of the hearsay statements of the child to which his mother and Sorini testified.