Calif-Legal: Bill to allow expert witness testimony in Pa. rape trials is on horizon
Pennsylvania is the only state that expressly prohibits an expert from testifying about rape-victim behavior, and that’s “disappointing,” according to Diane Moyer, legal director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, in Harrisburg.
State Rep. Cherelle Parker, D-Phila., is expected to reintroduce a bill to change that.
“It’s not typical for any rape victim to behave in any certain way,” Moyer said yesterday. She said it’s important for an expert on rape-victim behavior to be able to tell a jury why a victim may react in a “counterintuitive” way to how a person may believe such a victim should act.
Some victims may have continued contact with an acquaintance who raped them because they want to figure out what happened, Moyer said.
For instance, “you look at this person, he seems very clean-cut and professional, and all of a sudden they have the face of a monster,” she said. “You begin to question your own judgment. . . . How could this have happened?”
She said most rape victims don’t immediately report the crime to police. “It’s very unusual they would report right away, both for the embarrassment and fear,” she said.
One juror who sat through the second trial of Jeffrey Marsalis in Philadelphia in May and June 2007 voiced support yesterday for permitting testimony from expert witnesses.
“Honestly, in a trial, I think an expert should be allowed . . . whether it’s for the prosecution or for the defense . . . and let the jury decide how believable the expert is or how much more believable that expert would make the witness testimony,” the juror said. *