Legal and Scientific Issues Surrounding Victim Recantation in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
| Publication year | 2010 |
Georgia State University Law Review
3-21-2012
Legal and Scientific Issues Surrounding Victim Recantation in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
Cylinda C. Parga
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Recommended Citation
Parga, Cylinda C. (2007) "Legal and Scientific Issues Surrounding Victim Recantation in Child Sexual Abuse Cases," Georgia State
University Law Review: Vol. 24: Iss. 3, Article 3.
Available at: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/gsulr/vol24/iss3/3
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LEGAL AND SCIENTIFIC ISSUES SURROUNDING VICTIM RECANTATION IN CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES
Introduction
A man receives a 45-year prison sentence after a jury convicts him of sexually abusing his children.1 Society is safer for him being behind bars. His children are safer for him being behind bars. Or are they? The man's eldest son comes forward saying his father never touched him, that he has made a horrible mistake that has sent his father to prison. The man's daughter also denies her previous story of abuse and says her father never touched her. The children tell their story to anyone who will listen, anyone they think can help them get their father out of prison. At first they think it will be easy—and why shouldn't they? If it was their allegations that sent their father to prison, surely telling people those allegations were false will get him released. After talking to several people they believe should care about their story, the reality of their situation becomes clear: no one does care about what they have to say. No one cares about their declarations that their father never hurt them—at least, no one with any power to help them. No one listens to their protestations that an innocent man is spending the majority of his life in prison. No one cares that their father has been wrongly and forever branded as one of the worst kinds of criminals—a child molester. The children become frustrated. They find the uncaring reactions of people who are supposed to be interested in seeing justice done to be not only inexplicable, but also gravely unjust. They simply do not understand why no one seems willing to believe them when they say that an innocent man is in jail because they lied.
The problem presented by recanting victims in child sexual abuse cases is one that contains many dimensions and one that has left the
1. This is the true story of Jerry Biggs, a man currently serving a 45-year sentence in a Georgia state prison for child molestation. See generally Georgia Innocence Project, Case File of Jerry Biggs (on file with the Georgia Innocence Project) [hereinafter Biggs File].
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legal system struggling to develop a satisfactory approach. The myriad of legal, psychological, and societal issues that coalesce when a child victim recants results in a complex problem the courts seem ill-equipped to handle. Decisions in these cases are inevitably counterintuitive to a layperson's sense of justice, particularly when the layperson is someone who truly believes that his or her false testimony has sent an innocent person, usually a family member, to prison. Indeed, after trying to make their voices heard, many recanting child victims of sexual abuse are usually left asking the same question: why will no one listen to me?
This Note will attempt to define and clarify the issues that ultimately lead to the feeling of helplessness experienced by many recanting victims. It will also suggest ways in which the legal system could better address the recanting person's legitimate concerns that an injustice has been perpetrated while still striving to protect child victims of sexual abuse. Part I of this Note will offer a more in-depth look at the case of Jerry Biggs, examining how some of these issues play out in a real case where a child victim has recanted his testimony against an alleged child molester. This account will provide some insight into the personal and emotional struggles faced by all of the parties involved when a child recants his or her prior allegations of sexual abuse.
Part II of this Note will explore some of the relevant psychological issues that courts must address when considering a victim recantation. These issues include several psychological theories that either the prosecution or defense may advance in an effort to explain a recanting child's behavior, such as Child Sexual Abuse
2. See, e.g., John E.B. Myers et al., Expert Testimony in Child Sexual Abuse Litigation, 68 Neb. L. Rev. 1, 5 (1989) (noting that the law regarding expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases is "in a formative stage of development, and a coherent theoretical framework for decisionmaking has yet to emerge."); Sharon Cobb, Comment, Gary Dotson as Victim: The Legal Response to Recanting Testimony, 35 Emory L.J. 969, 970 (1986) ("[procedurally, the law is reluctantly prepared to handle the situation presented by a witness's recantation."); Janice J. Repka, Comment, Rethinking the Standard for New Trial Motions Based upon Recantations as Newly Discovered Evidence, 134 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1433, 1436 (1986) (arguing that even though "encouraging strides have been made" for dealing with recantation in a just manner, the "history of recantation treatment reveals the inadequacies that have plagued, and remain in, our system.").
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Accommodation Syndrome or studies exploring the extent to which children's memories are prone to the suggestions and influences of third parties. Part III will outline the legal issues raised when a child recants his or her allegations of abuse and offer suggestions for developing a legal framework for handling these cases which will ensure that the ultimate disposition of these cases is one that is just to all of the parties involved.
I. Stories of Abuse, Manipulation, and Recantation: From the Case Files of The Georgia Innocence Project
The Georgia Innocence Project (GIP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to establishing the innocence of wrongly convicted persons through the use of DNA evidence.3 The GIP has received over 3,200 letters requesting assistance since it started in August 2004.4 The vast majority of these letters present cases with legal issues that the GIP is unable to address because there is no DNA evidence available for testing.5 One type of case falling into this category is that of an inmate who is in prison because a child, usually a relative, accused him of sexual abuse, and now the alleged victim is recanting his or her accusation. The GIP receives these types of cases on a regular basis, but is currently unable to assist these inmates in their pursuit of exoneration, despite the compelling stories told not only by the inmates, but also by the recanting children. One such case is that of Jerry Biggs.
A. Jerry Biggs
As noted, the story outlined at the beginning of this article is a true-life account of the experience of Jerry Biggs, a man who
3. Georgia Innocence Project, http://www.ga-innocenceproject.org/history.html (last visited Mar. 17,2008).
4. Id.
5. The rigorous requirements a case must meet in order to qualify for legal representation by the GIP help to explain the fact that the GIP has only officially represented nineteen clients since its inception. Id.
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contacted the GIP to ask for assistance. In 1996, Mr. Biggs received a 45-year sentence after a jury found him guilty of molesting his children.6 At Mr. Biggs's trial, his eldest son and daughter testified against him, stating that their father had sexually abused them. A year after the trial, Mr. Biggs's son recanted his testimony during an interview he requested with an attorney and an investigator. Based on the son's recantation, an attorney filed an extraordinary motion for a new trial for Mr. Biggs. The motion was denied. The son related his recantation to a friend of the family, who related his account to the GIP. He told the family friend that after his parents separated, his father requested that his mother not leave the children alone with her brother (the children's uncle), who Biggs's wife accused of molesting her when she was a child. When Biggs's wife left the children alone with their uncle against Biggs's wishes, Biggs sued for custody of the children.
It was after Biggs filed suit for custody that the allegations of abuse came out. Biggs's son stated that his mother pressured the children into saying that Biggs molested them in order to retain custody. The son also claimed that his account of suffering from abuse was true, but that it was his uncle who molested him, not his father. The fact that the uncle was later convicted of molesting Biggs's daughters lends credence to the son's story.7 The daughter who testified at trial also recanted her testimony. She said that counselors "drilled" her and "told" her what her father did using anatomically correct dolls. Eventually she told them what she believed they wanted to hear so that they would leave her alone.8
Biggs's son has fought for nine years to correct what he believes to be a grave injustice. Just thirteen at the time of the trial, Biggs's son is now a young man who has grown increasingly frustrated and disillusioned as he pursues his quest to find someone in the legal
6. See Biggs File. Unless specifically cited, all of the information in detailing Mr. Biggs's case in Part I. A come from the general contents of the Biggs File, supra note 1.
7. Biggs File, supra note 1.
8. Id.
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