Court Opinion

ID: 9676225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:18:31.735448+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:45.791115
License: Public Domain

GRAVES, Justice,
dissenting.
Respectfully, I dissent.
Our adversarial trial system has evolved into a very sophisticated and expensive search for the truth. Kentucky remains as one of the few jurisdictions that still rejects all testimony regarding the phenomenon clinically identified and demonstrated as the Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome which provides jurors a psychological explanation for certain behavior in small children following sexual abuse. Such testimony is necessary because these children often exhibit conduct that is inconsistent with the jurors’ life experiences or understanding of human nature in children.
After an attack on the victim’s credibility, the prosecution offered as rebuttal testimony a reason for the victim’s retraction. The retraction symptom of the CSAAS fully satisfies the Frye test. This limited testimony should be allowed in Kentucky at this time as the need for a rationale of recantation is crucial for the jury’s understanding. As is the case with all testimony, the jury may accept or reject the explanation in whole or in part.
While all five symptoms of the CSAAS syndrome have not been wholly embraced in the field of psychology, however, the recantation symptom is widely accepted and confirmed by credible studies at renowned research institutions by well credentialed experts.
WILLET, Special Justice, and WINTERSHEIMER, J., join in this dissenting opinion.