NEW HAMPSHIRE
Union Leader
By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News
The testimony of victims would have to be corroborated in most sexual assault cases, under a bill coming up for a hearing this week.
Proponents say the measure would better protect those falsely accused of such crimes.
But victim advocates and law enforcement officials say the bill is “dangerous” and would reverse decades of progress that New Hampshire has made on victims’ rights.
Under current law (RSA 632-A:6), “the testimony of the victim shall not be required to be corroborated in prosecutions” in sexual assault cases.
House Bill 106 would change that to read: “The testimony of the victim shall be corroborated in prosecutions under this chapter only in cases where the defendant has no prior convictions under this chapter.”
And that would be the vast majority of such cases, says Amanda Grady Sexton, director of public policy for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “What this does is it sends a message that victims of sexual assault are not to be believed,” she said.
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