State of Maine v. Richard J. Kimball

[¶ 1] In this appeal we address, again, issues that arise when a victim of domestic violence claims lack of memory of critical events or otherwise becomes unavailable or unwilling to testify against the accused. The State, to maintain the prosecution in such cases, often must rely on alternatives to,.first-person testimony to bring the victim’s statements before the jury. The challenges for trial courts addressing such • evidence have been enhanced in recent years by opinions of the United States Supreme Court, beginning with Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d…