NCJ Number
110306
Journal
Louisiana Law Review Volume: 47 Issue: 6 Dated: (July 1987) Pages: 1255-1303
Date Published
1987
Length
47 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the effectiveness of Louisiana's statute which authorizes the pretrial videotaping of a child witness' account to minimize the trauma of repeated interviews.
Abstract
The statute provides for videotaping of an out-of-court account by child victims of physical or sexual abuse. If the videotape meets certain minimal requirements of evidentiary competence and if the child and any interviewer are available for testimony at trial, the videotaped recording is admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule in either a criminal prosecution or a juvenile proceeding. The constitutionality of the Louisiana statute is assessed against the standard set in the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Kentucky v. Stincer (1987), a witness confrontation claim which arose out of an in-chambers competency examination of two child witnesses from which the defendant had been excluded, although he was represented by counsel. The Court rejected the defendant's claim. The test applied in the decision was that all questions and answers given in the challenged procedure could have been easily repeated in the defendant's presence at trial, the child witnesses thereafter did appear and testify in open court, they were cross-examined on the competency issue, and the challenged procedure did not involve substantive testimony about the alleged offense. This article concludes that there is nothing in the Louisiana statute that precludes compliance with this test. The article, however, does recommend reform that will better achieve the minimization of witness trauma and enhance the reliability of child witness testimony. 196 footnotes.