South Carolina v. Legg

Appellant Ronald Legg was convicted of lewd act on a minor. He was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment, ordered to be placed on the sex offender registry, and subjected to GPS monitoring. Appellant argued at trial and before the South Carolina Supreme Court that South Carolina Code Annotated section 17-23-175 (2014) (permitting a videotaped forensic interview of an alleged child abuse victim to be played before a jury) arbitrarily allowed an alleged victim to testify twice therefore violating his Due Process right to a fair trial under the Fourteenth Amendment. The trial judge ruled the videotape at issue met the statutory requirement for admission, and that in his view, its admission was constitutional; therefore, the videotape was permitted to be played before the jury. Because the Supreme Court agreed that the statute was not facially unconstitutional on procedural Due Process grounds, it affirmed appellant's conviction and sentence. View "South Carolina v. Legg" on Justia Law