ABSTRACT
In Coy v. Iowa, 487 US 1012, the US Supreme Court overturned an Iowa law that permitted installation of a screen between an underage victim of sexual assault and the defendant accused of the assault during the victim's testimony in order to protect the victim from further trauma. The state of Iowa charged John Coy with sexually assaulting two thirteen-year-old girls. Concerned that testifying before the defendant in court would further harm the girls, the trial court acted in accordance with Iowa law and placed a screen between Coy and the victims when the victims took the witness stand. The Supreme Court found the Iowa law unconstitutional. The Court found the Iowa law too broad in its assumption that all underage witnesses were subject to trauma from testifying. The Court remanded the case to the Iowa Supreme Court to decide if use of the screen affected the outcome of the case.
