Court Opinion

ID: 9485833
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:31:22.954353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:23.422995
License: Public Domain

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the exclusion of the testimony suggesting prior hyme-nal damage in this case violated the petitioner’s Sixth Amendment right to cross-examine witnesses effectively but that this constitutional error was nonetheless harmless. I write separately, however, in order to emphasize my belief that, but for the evidence of A.T.’s venereal disease, the petitioner would clearly have satisfied his burden of showing that the error “had substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.” Brecht v. Abrahamson, - U.S. -, -, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 1722, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993) (quoting Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 776, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1253, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946)). As the majority opinion correctly finds, “[i]n the absence of any testimony of prior sexual experience, the jury would likely presume that hymenal damage to an eleven-year-old girl was the result of the alleged molestation.” Ante at 1138. Thus, the other evidence on which the majority relies in concluding that the error was harmless — the detailed testimony of the victim, the consistency with which the victim related her stories to others and A.T.’s mother’s testimony placing A.T. at Tague’s home on the weekend of one of the alleged incidents — would alone not be enough to overcome the error’s prejudicial influence on the jury. Dr. Hibbard’s testimony regarding A.T.’s venereal disease, however, establishes that, even if the cross-examination had not been unconstitutionally circumscribed, the jury would still have been able to corroborate the victim’s allegations with physical evidence. Because of this evidence, and this evidence alone, I concur that the constitutional error was harmless.