The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that the State will be allowed to introduce evidence of a child victim’s recorded video statement during the prosecution of the defendant for seven counts of rape.
In 2010, the defendant, Barry McCoy, was indicted for seven counts of rape of a child. Prior to trial, the State gave notice that it intended to offer as evidence a video recording of a statement made by the victim to a forensic interviewer during the investigation into the allegations of abuse. Tennessee has a law designed to allow for these types of video recordings to be admitted as evidence, but the defendant objected to the State’s use of the victim’s prior statement.
The trial court ruled in favor of the defendant and denied the State permission to use the video recording at trial. The court based its decision on constitutional principles and the Tennessee Rules of Evidence. The State was allowed to file an interlocutory appeal challenging the trial court’s decision before the trial began.
On interlocutory appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the trial court, allowing the State to offer the victim’s recorded statement as evidence during the trial. The Supreme Court held that as long as the recorded video statement is relevant, meets certain statutory requirements, and otherwise is in line with the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, its use by the State would not violate constitutional principles.
Read the State of Tennessee v. Barry D. McCoy opinion, authored by Justice Gary R. Wade.