Man convicted of raping babysitter could get new trial because she testified behind closed doors
The Massachusetts Appeals Court today paved a possible road for a new trial for a Martha's Vinyard man convicted of raping a teenager he'd hired as a babysitter 19 years ago.
At issue was whether the trial judge's decision to let the teen - 15 at the time of the alleged attack - testify in a closed courtroom that she had fallen asleep and that she was awoken around 1:30 a.m. by Chad Edward raping her.
Edward argues this violated his right to a public trial under the Sixth Amendment. The appeals court said there was enough evidence to suggest it had and sent the case back to Superior Court for a new hearing on the issue.
The original judge relied on a Massachusetts law allowing the closure of courtrooms for testimony by minors, but that law had been overturned by a 1982 Supreme Court decision that held courtrooms could only be closed for extraordinary reasons that had to be spelled out. The appeals court said:
Here, the interests to be protected by closure never were addressed and they do not obviously emerge from the record, particularly when the fresh complaint witnesses testified publicly about many of the details to which the victim herself testified. There was no consideration of alternatives and there was no statement of reasons other than a reference to the statute itself. That was not enough.
