Stephens v. Miller
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
13 F.3d 998 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 808 (1994)
Lonnie Stephens (defendant) was charged with rape; he claimed the sex was consensual and that during the encounter he made two crude comments referencing a mutual friend and "switching partners," which he said caused the victim to become upset, order him to leave, and then fabricate a rape accusation out of retaliation. The victim's account described Stephens as forcing himself on her while others slept in the home. Under Indiana's rape shield statute, the trial court barred Stephens from testifying to the specific content of his crude remarks, but let him testify generally that he'd said something that angered the victim and caused her to make up the story. He was convicted; the Indiana Supreme Court affirmed; a federal habeas petition was denied, and he appealed.
Whether excluding a rape defendant's testimony about the specific content of sexually explicit statements he made to the victim, under a rape shield statute, violates his constitutional right to testify in his own defense.