Loading ...Changing the Rules
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi told me this morning on Newstalk 1430 WXNT, that he wanted to change the Rules of Court Evidence for Indiana to make it easier to prosecute domestic violence cases.
Brizzi says he wants lawmakers to change the rules so that “prior inconsistent statements” can be used in court for substantive purposes. A prior inconsistent statement is a statement made by a witness that contradicts a later statement. Currently such statements can not be used to determine the innocence or guilt of a defendant, but only to impeach their testimony (in other words show they are not believable.)
To protect due process rights, the individual making the statement must be available for cross examination. And then the judge or jury can weigh the evidence and determine which one they want to believe. Brizzi says such a change in the rules of evidence will make it easier to prosecute domestic violence cases because victims will report abuse to police and later change their stories because they were intimidated by their abuser.
Brizzi says he got the idea after making a trip out to San Diego and studying the California system for handling domestic violence. Keep an eye out on this one.
December 27th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Wow, big news. You have a lot of scoops - I’m going to start listening to your show more often.
December 28th, 2005 at 1:38 am
I wonder if this will go through.
December 28th, 2005 at 7:28 am
The impetus for this proposed change may be to make prosecuting difficult domestic violence cases easier. I just hope that if lawmakers look at this they remember a change in the Rules will impact much more than just those cases. You can bet Brizzi is quite aware of the far-reaching consequences such a change could have.