The First Complaint: An Approach to the Admission of Child-Hearsay Statements Under the Alaska Rules of Evidence
Abstract
The age of child sexual abuse victims and the private nature of sex crimes make it notoriously difficult for prosecutors to find sufficient admissible corroborating evidence for an effective prosecution. The Alaska courts have responded by stretching various codified and common-law hearsay rule exceptions to accommodate child-hearsay statements. In this Note, the Author discusses the inadequacies of this approach and proposes amending the Alaska Rules of Evidence to include a consistent hearsay exception for child-hearsay in sexual abuse cases, based on the first complaint rule and compliant with the Supreme Court’s articulation of the Confrontation Clause in Crawford v. Washington and Davis v. Washington. (Author Abstract)
Description
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Keywords
child abuse, child sexual abuse, court, testimony, law
Citation
Gochnour, J. J. (2010). The First Complaint: An Approach to the Admission of Child-Hearsay Statements Under the Alaska Rules of Evidence. Alaska Law Review, 27, 71-102.