Myrna S. Raeder
Professor, Southwestern Law School.
Articles by this Author
Comments on Child Abuse Litigation in a “Testimonial” World: The Intersection of Competency, Hearsay, and Confrontation
- By Myrna S. Raeder
- Published 10/6/2007
- Volume 82, Issue 4
In Comments on Child Abuse Litigation in a "Testimonial" World: The
Intersection of Competency, Hearsay, and Confrontation, Raeder summarizes
the challenges creates by child witnesses and critiques the historical
approach, noting that "[i]t should come as no surprise that eighteenth-century
values would silence the voices of children in the twenty-first-century
courtroom." She argues that the Supreme Court's rigid and categorical
testimonial approach hampers both the accused (who seemingly has no remaining
constitutional challenge for nontestimonial statements) and the prosecution
(which is sometimes unable to produce a child witness and must therefore
forfeit use of a child's testimonial statement).
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