In the Interest of John Doe
Intermediate Court of Appeals of Hawaii
918 P.2d 254 (Haw. App. 1996)
A thirteen-year-old boy (defendant) was charged with sexually assaulting a nineteen-year-old victim, who presented expert testimony that she was mentally retarded and unable to fully comprehend the sexual acts involved. The defendant sought to introduce evidence that the victim was in a relationship with a forty-year- old man and had been taking birth control, to counter the claim she lacked capacity to understand sexual conduct; the trial court excluded this evidence entirely under Hawaii's rape shield law, and the defendant was convicted and appealed.
Whether evidence of specific incidents of a victim's prior sexual conduct is admissible to show the victim's mental capacity in terms of her knowledge and appreciation of the nature and consequences of sexual conduct.