State v. Sheline

OPINION

ANDERSON, Chief Justice.

The question presented by this appeal is whether the trial court correctly applied the Tennessee “rape shield” rule when it excluded evidence of a rape victim’s prior sexual conduct. 1

The Court of Criminal Appeals, with one judge dissenting, held that the evidence should have been admitted under the exception set out in Tennessee Rules of Evidence 412, which allows the admission of specific instances of a victim’s sexual conduct with persons other than the defendant if the evidence demonstrates a pattern of sexual behavior so distinctive and so closely…