Woodard v. State

Sears, Justice.

Appellant Jerry Woodard appeals his conviction for child molestation, arguing that the trial court erred by admitting into evidence certain hearsay statements made out-of-court by a six-year-old witness to the crime. At issue is the validity of the 1995 amendment to the Child Hearsay Statute.1 The amendment allows hearsay declarations made by a child under the age of 14 who witnessed an act of sexual or physical abuse inflicted on another to be introduced as substantive evidence in a criminal trial, so long as the child declarant is available to testify. Because we must…