'Face -- to Television Screen -- to Face': Testimony by Closed-Circuit Television in Cases of Alleged Child Abuse and the Confrontation Right

• NCJ Number: 117163
• Journal: Kentucky Law Journal Volume: 76 Issue: 1 Dated: (1987-88) Pages: 273-299
• Author(s): J P Grant
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 27 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines whether the use of closed-circuit television to present the live testimony of a child witness violates the defendant's constitutional right to confront all adverse witnesses.

Abstract

The most recent legislative innovation designed to relieve possible trauma for child witnesses is the use of closed-circuit television to present the child's live testimony. Although procedures vary from State to State, some statutes permit the child witness to testify in front of a television camera in a room adjacent to the courtroom in the company of the prosecuting and the defense attorneys, who examine and cross-examine the child. In the courtroom, the judge, the jury, and the defendant watch the testimony on television monitors outside the child's presence. This comment argues that using closed-circuit testimony in cases of alleged child abuse poses a serious threat to the defendant's right to confront witnesses. Such a structure for testimony decreases the defendant's opportunity to challenge the witness through cross-examination and increases the chance that the jury will misjudge the child's credibility. 119 footnotes.