Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations

Iowa's AG hopes voters reverse ruling so kids don't have to face abusers in court

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A court ruling in Iowa altered child abuse prosecutions. Most states allow video testimony from children who the court decides are unable to face their alleged abusers in court. They can testify by video. But over the summer, Iowa's supreme court blocked that practice in that state. As Iowa Public Radio's Katarina Sostaric reports, the state attorney general hopes voters will turn that decision around.

KATARINA SOSTARIC, BYLINE: For decades, children in Iowa have been able to testify at trials through a video system from a separate room. That's in cases where therapists say children couldn't handle testifying in the presence of an alleged abuser.

BRENNA BIRD: And then, with one ruling, all of those protections vanished.

SOSTARIC: That's Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird. According to her and the court, though we couldn't confirm it, the ruling by Iowa's supreme court makes it the only state that doesn't let children testify by video in such cases.

BIRD: Unless something changes, we will see fewer prosecutions of crimes against children, particularly those that are brutal. Kids will be too scared to testify, and those cases will get dropped. Criminals will walk free.

SOSTARIC: Over the summer, the court ruled four to three that the use of one-way video testimony, where the child couldn't see the defendant, violated the defendant's right to confront witnesses. Justice David May wrote the majority opinion, saying that when the Iowa Constitution was ratified in 1857, confrontation was understood to be a face-to-face encounter. He writes that at least requires two-way video testimony, but didn't actually say if that's allowed now, either. Chief Justice Susan Christensen wrote the dissent, noting that video didn't exist in 1857. She also said laws around juveniles and the justice system have changed a lot since then.

The attorney general held a press conference in December where Brittany Sowder, a survivor of human trafficking, spoke. She said she was in her late teens and didn't have the video option. She said she didn't testify because she was paralyzed with fear at the thought of being in the same room as her trafficker.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRITTANY SOWDER: I know how important this amendment is because I've lived the alternative. I didn't testify because the system felt too unsafe for me to do so. How many more survivors will feel the same way?

SOSTARIC: Attorney General Bird, a Republican, called on Iowa lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to counter the court's decision. It would give the legislature more powers over the rights of defendants to confront children, or witnesses with a mental illness or intellectual disability, in court. But that raises concerns for defendants' rights. Robert Rigg is a retired Drake University law professor and a founder of the Iowa Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He says the proposal could lead to wrongful convictions. Rigg says defendants are presumed innocent, and it's supposed to be hard to convict them.

ROBERT RIGG: Testifying in front of someone is - well, for lack of a better term, it's dramatic. It's hard. It's difficult, and it's supposed to be.

SOSTARIC: It takes approval by two general assemblies to put amendments on the ballot in Iowa, so the earliest this could face voters would be 2027. In the meantime, prosecutors say they'll keep pursuing child abuse cases and try to help kids through the courts. For NPR News, I'm Katarina Sostaric in Des Moines, Iowa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Katarina Sostaric
Katarina Sostaric is an Iowa City based reporter covering Eastern Iowa for Iowa Public Radio.