Budget & Bureaucracy Briefs...

Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee set to amend Tender Years Exception

Vacated conviction of child rapist catalyst to legislative action

Earlier this year in a 7-2 decision Pennsylvania’s Superior Court vacated the 20 to 40 year sentence imposed on David Kriner (Kriner v. Commonwealth) upon being convicted of raping his stepdaughter (see the Patriot News story Court’s ruling could free rapist). The conviction resulted from a non-jury trial in 2004 in Jefferson County. Kriner was accused of sexually abusing his stepdaughter over a three year period starting when she was six years old. When she was nine, she disclosed the abuse to school officials. In 2003, Kriner was charged with four counts each of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and indecent assault. Tragically, the young girl was killed later that year in an auto accident before Kriner’s criminal case was concluded. Kriner had waived his right to a preliminary hearing and so the case proceeded directly to trial. This choice by the defendant and the death of the young victim ensured that she never was provided the opportunity to testify firsthand in any criminal proceedings stemming from the charges.

As a result of her death, she was unavailable to testify to the abuse firsthand. Currently, Pennsylvania’s Tender Years Statute links a child’s inability to testify in court to an emotional distress standard. It ultimately does not address scenarios where the child is unavailable for circumstances (i.e. death) unrelated to emotional distress, as was true in the Kriner case. This week the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee will take action on Senate Bill 699, introduced by Chairman Stewart Greenleaf, to mirror Rule 804 (a) of the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence to stipulate that a child is “unable to be present or to testify at the hearing because of death or then existing physical or mental illness or infirmity.” Swift passage of Senate Bill 699 will not bring justice for a young girl victimized at the hands of her stepfather, but it will better ensure that justice will not be denied future child victims in the Commonwealth.

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