KATHLEEN MILLER Associated Press writer | Posted: Saturday, February 10, 2007 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - The public policy director for the Wyoming Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault says she's disappointed that lawmakers killed a bill that would have barred most of a rape victim's sexual history from being admitted in court.
At the same time, Suzan Pauling said she could understand why the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-1 against the bill this week.
"More victims would have prosecuted cases if we changed rape shield laws, but we don't know that for a fact," Pauling said. "Until we can prove that it would actually be the case, I think I can understand where the committee was coming from."
The bill's goal was to encourage more rape victims to report crimes. The measure had passed the House unanimously.
Current law calls for "judicial discretion," which means it's up to a judge to decide what parts of a rape victim's sexual past can be discussed in the courtroom. Sexual assault counselors say many victims do not press charges because of concerns about their sexual histories becoming public.
"Ultimately, I think it came down to the fact that we believe that our judges in Wyoming are doing a good job right now of balancing the evidence that is presented in those types of trials; they're protecting the victim and giving the defendant a fair shot at presenting evidence," said Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper. "Until there is a problem, we didn't see the need to fix a system that doesn't appear to be broken."
Bill co-sponsor Sen. Ken Decaria, D-Evanston, said the bill was driven by the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, in which the accuser's sexual history became fodder for lurid headlines for months before prosecutors dropped the case. Colorado subsequently changed its rape shield laws to prohibit defense attorneys in rape cases from discussing the accuser's sexual history during preliminary hearings.
Decaria added that the recent publicity surrounding the Duke lacrosse team rape case has shown there are many serious issues to be considered in rape trials.
In that case, a stripper hired by Duke lacrosse players said she was attacked at a team party last spring, but the prosecutor dropped charges of rape against the three athletes after the 28-year-old woman changed a key detail of her account of the incident. The players still face charges of sexual offense and kidnapping and have consistently maintained their innocence.
"There's a real complexity to the issue," Decaria said. "But Rep. (Keith) Gingery (the bill's sponsor) and I pursued the bill in an effort to get more victims to come forward, thinking that maybe more would report crimes if they had some assurances that they weren't going to be, basically, revictimized, by having everything they'd done in their past on the table in these cases."