In People v. Duenaz, No. 150286, the Michigan Supreme Court granted mini-oral argument on whether it should consider whether evidence of a child’s prior sexual abuse is “sexual conduct” barred by the rape-shield statute, MCL 750.520j. The parties were also ordered to brief whether, if evidence of prior sexual abuse was barred by the rape-shield statute, the evidence was nevertheless admissible under the facts of the case in order to present the defendant’s right of confrontation and to present a defense, and whether any error in excluding the evidence was harmless.
Defendant Duenaz was convicted of first and second-degree criminal sexual conduct for sexually assaulting an underage girl. The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, rejecting defendant’s argument that the trial court erred by refusing to admit evidence that the victim was sexually assaulted by her stepfather, reasoning that the evidence was both irrelevant and barred by the rape-shield statute. The Court of Appeals also held that refusal to admit the evidence did not violate the defendant’s constitutional right to confrontation of witnesses because a defendant does not have a right to cross-examine a witness on irrelevant issues. Our post summarizing the Court of Appeals opinion is here.
