By Helping a Girl Testify at a Rape Trial, a Dog Ignites a Legal Debate

This is an interesting debate. I think that there can be good arguments on both sides of the debate. Personally, I think the dogs can be quite an asset--and I think I'd want to have one near me if I ever had to face a trauma in court. Dogs are so good to people, no matter how shitty a lot of people treat them.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/nyregion/dog-helps-rape-victim-15-testify.html

By Helping a Girl Testify at a Rape Trial, a Dog Ignites a Legal Debate
Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times


Rosie, who comforts traumatized children and aided a teenager on the stand in a rape trial, outside the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with Dale Picard.

By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: August 8, 2011

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager’s feet. At particularly bad moments, she leaned in.

When the trial ended in June with the father’s conviction, the teenager “was most grateful to Rosie above all,” said David A. Crenshaw, a psychologist who works with the teenager.

“She just kept hugging Rosie,” he continued.

Now an appeal planned by the defense lawyers is placing Rosie at the heart of a legal debate that will test whether there will be more Rosies in courtrooms in New York and, possibly, other states.

Rosie is a golden retriever therapy dog who specializes in comforting people when they are under stress. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers have described her as adorable, though she has been known to slobber.

Prosecutors here noted that she is also in the vanguard of a growing trial trend: in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana and some other states in the last few years, courts have allowed such trained dogs to offer children and other vulnerable witnesses nuzzling solace in front of juries.

rest at link

If the father got her pregnant, wouldn't the DNA be enough evidence?

When really young children are involved, they will sometimes tape the deposition in private and just play the recording at trial to spare them from having to testify in front of a bunch of people, but generally with older children and adults they have to take the stand. Prosecutors try to avoid this by offering generous plea bargain deals, which is why when a defendant refuses to take the plea and insists on taking it clear to trial and is found guilty, the judge tends to really hit them hard at sentencing and lock them away for a long time just for putting the victim(s) through the wringer like that.

I've been offered companionship by 3 in my years...

Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him
http://www.hyperionbooks.com/book/until-tuesday/

I'll look into that.

could have a dog like Tuesday. It's a very good book, I was in tears by the third page, I think. It's great that they're starting to use dogs like him in courtrooms, hopefully that will be allowed to continue.

They're concerned petting the dog will make it look like the witness is stressed, but there is a wide range of behaviors that show that - wringing hands, crying, etc. and none of that has been a cause for concern, has it?

I'm glad someone thought of it.

stating the jurers were influenced by how the dog behaved in court, as if the dog made any difference in what the girl testified to. The girl is so traumatized by her father, that she requires the dognear her in order to testify. It provides her with emotional support. more than the pig of a father EVER did.

The only reason this is a debate is because there was a conviction.

or groundhogs to bite the dick off of these rapists. Or raccoons.....rabid ones.

Her father and attorney should leave this planet soon.

That poor young woman. No one seems to think of her.....just the dog.

ETA: So is this young woman stuck having her father's kid? WTF? Abortion is legal and safe in NY.

I give up. Why is this society of ours putting women through this hell on earth???