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Panel backs bill to broaden use of closed‑circuit testimony for child witnesses
Summary
A committee voted to report House Bill 3338 to the full Senate with a recommendation it pass. The bill would expand the circumstances in which a child witness may testify by closed‑circuit television instead of in the courtroom with a defendant present.
A Senate committee voted to report House Bill 3338 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass.
Counsel told the committee that current West Virginia law—modeled on a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1990—permits prosecutors or guardians ad litem to petition the court to allow a child victim to testify by closed‑circuit television when the child is the victim of a specified crime. House Bill 3338 would broaden that statutory standard so that any child witness, not only a child victim of certain crimes, could be evaluated for closed‑circuit testimony accommodations.
Counsel described the amendment before the committee as a committee substitute and said the strike‑and‑insert expands the eligible population of child witnesses who could be evaluated for accommodation. There were no amendments or recorded debate in the committee beyond a motion by the vice chair to report the bill to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass; the chair declared the motion adopted by voice vote.
What happens next: the bill moves to the full Senate where judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and child‑protection advocates may further debate how the widened eligibility for closed‑circuit testimony will be applied in practice and what standards courts should use when evaluating petitions.
