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180 Ga. App. 312

349 S.E.2d 6

Chastain v. State

Court of Appeals of Georgia

Decided September 4, 1986

Court of Appeals of Georgia · decided 1986-09-04

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[k]nowledge of a crime gained through being a victim of that crime at the hands of others can have no relevance to the issue of guilt or innocence of the defendant on trial. The past sexual experience of a child in a case such as this is irrelevant to the issue of whether molestation was committed by the defendant on trial.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 225 Ga. App. 262 - Washington v. State

Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · 139 Ga. App. 707 - Decker v. State · 170 Ga. App. 779 - Chapman v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1986-09-04

How this case has been cited

Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently January 2006

22 state decisions

130198619902000decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Pope, Judge.

¶1 Randy Calvin Chastain was convicted on five counts of aggravated sodomy and child molestation and was sentenced to serve twenty years on each of four counts, the sentences to run concurrently, with ten years probation on the fifth count.

¶2 1. Chastain raises the general grounds. We have carefully reviewed the record and find that the evidence is sufficient beyond any reasonable doubt to enable a rational trier of fact to convict Chastain on each count. Accord Chapman v. State, 170 Ga. App. 779 (1) (318 SE2d 213) (1984); see also Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U. S. 307 (99 SC 2781, 61 LE2d 560) (1979).

¶3 2. Chastain argues that the court erred in restricting his right to a thorough and sifting cross-examination by granting the State’s motion in limine precluding him from questioning the child about alleged incidents with other men for the purpose of showing the child’s knowledge of the crimes of child molestation and sodomy. Knowledge of a crime gained through being a victim of that crime at the hands of others can have no relevance to the issue of guilt or innocence of the defendant on trial. The past sexual experience of a child in a case such as this is irrelevant to the issue of whether molestation was com *313 mitted by the defendant on trial. Decker v. State, 139 Ga. App. 707 (2) (229 SE2d 520) (1976). The trial court did not err in excluding such evidence.

Decided September 4, 1986 Rehearing denied September 17, 1986 David E. Ralston, for appellant. Roger G. Queen, District Attorney, for appellee.

¶4 Judgment affirmed.

McMurray, P. J., and Carley, J., concur.
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