I watch a lot of true crime shows and there appears to be a lot of cases where victims decide not to follow through with testifying against their attackers, merely because of their fear of being in the room with them. This seems to be particularly common in cases of sexual assault. Can’t they just not have the accused attacker not appear in court when the victim testifies?
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The following applies only to the United States:
In the U.S., people accused of *any* crimes, not just violent ones, have rights too, and one of those rights is the right to face anyone who testifies against you in court and to challenge their testimony. It’s in the Constitution. Allowing a witness to testify without being in court, or not allowing the defendant to be in court when the witness testifies violates this fundamental Constitutional right that belongs to the defendant. There are some limited circumstances where this does not apply, but the general rule is that a witness must testify in court in front of the defendant.
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