State v. Jennings - admission of interviewer's written reports reversible error
In State v. Jennings, decided September 19, 2011, the S.C. Supreme Court reversed Jennings' conviction for lewd act on a minor, holding that the admission of the forensic interviewer's written reports were 1) inadmissible hearsay and 2) improper vouching.
The reports contained hearsay statements by the mother of the children which essentially repeated the allegations - they were out of court statements offered to prove the truth of the statement, and they were not harmless error under these circumstances. Further, the report stated that it was the interviewer's belief that the children gave a "compelling disclosure of abuse," and that the disclosure contained details that were consistent with the background information received from the mother, the police report, and the other children - essentially commenting on the veracity of the child's accusations. An expert cannot vouch for the truthfulness of the child witness.
The Court declined to rule on whether the timing of the introduction of the videos of the children's interviews was improper - the objection made was only to the timing of the introduction of the videos and, although a constitutional violation was argued on appeal, the trial attorney did not raise a specific constitutional ground for the objection at trial, and the issue was not preserved.
