U.S. Supreme Court reinstates child beating conviction of man who said teachers' testimony against h
Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer
U.S. Supreme Court reinstates child beating conviction of man who said teachers' testimony against him violated his rights
By Sabrina Eaton, Northeast Ohio Media Group Washington Correspondent
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on June 18, 2015 at 10:18 AM, updated June 18, 2015 at 11:02 AM
WASHINGTON, D. C. - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously reinstated the conviction of a Cleveland man who beat his girlfriend's children, rejecting his argument that allowing trial testimony from the three-year-old child's teachers violated the man's constitutional right to confront his accuser in court.
"Mandatory reporting obligations do not convert a conversation between a concerned teacher and her student into a law enforcement mission aimed at gathering evidence for prosecution," said the decision written by Justice Samuel Alito in the case of 28-year-old Darius Clark. "It is irrelevant that the teachers' questions and their duty to report the matter had the natural tendency to result in Clark's prosecution."
The decision sets a nationwide precedent for whether prosecutors can use child abuse information gathered by teachers and day-care workers in court trials where kids can't testify for themselves.
The case against Clark started when teachers at William Patrick Day School spotted whip marks on the boy's face and back, and asked how he got them. He told them Clark - who was dating his mother - had caused the injuries. The teachers relayed the child's statements to law enforcement.
A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas jury sentenced Clark to 28 years in prison for beating the boy and his younger sister, who had two black eyes and burns on her chest, face, arm and legs. Some of the wounds became infected after they weren't treated.
At the trial, the children's mother testified that Clark was her pimp and that she had left the youngsters in Clark's care while she went to Washington, D.C., to engage in prostitution. Although the boy wasn't found competent to testify, the court let the teachers testify about his statements.
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Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/06/supreme_court_reinstates_child.html#incart_river
May this piece of shit get the ........
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