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The Constitutionality Of Missouri Protective Statutes Of Child Abuse Victim Testimony In Criminal Trials, Vanessa Marie Starke Ms.

Vanessa Marie Starke Ms.

The Supreme Court decision in Iowa v. Coy and its subsequent holding in Maryland v. Craig found that the confrontation clause of the United States Constitution, like other rights, is not absolute. The Court determined that in some circumstances and under certain procedural conditions, a state’s interest in protecting a child abuse victim might permit the child to testify via video deposition. The cases were in reaction to the passage in many states of protective statutes allowing for such procedures in child-abuse prosecutions.

Missouri is one of the states that had passed such statutes prior to the Supreme Court decisions …