Knight v. State

426 S.E.2d 1, 206 Ga. App. 529, 1992 Ga. App. LEXIS 1696

• Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
• Decided: September 24, 1992
• Docket: A92A1558
• Status: Published

Opinions

Carley, Presiding Judge.

Appellant was tried before a jury and found guilty of child molestation. He appeals from the judgment of conviction and sentence entered on the jury’s verdict of guilt, enumerating as error only the trial court’s refusal to allow certain expert testimony at trial.

On appeal, appellant contends that the expert would have testified that, in his opinion, appellant was not a pedophile. However, the profFer demonstrates that the expert did not hold such an unequivocal opinion. In the expert’s own words, “the validity of [appellant’s psychological testing results] is exceedingly low,” and the “negative findings should be interpreted quite cautiously, because [appellant] still could have been involved in child molestation but [the] absence of positive testing results failed to demonstrate same.” This is not an opinion that appellant is not a pedophile, but a mere statement that psychological testing had failed to prove that he was.

Moreover, even if the proffer had demonstrated that the expert was of the unequivocal opinion that appellant was not a pedophile, such opinion would still not be admissible. There is no authority for the admission of an expert opinion that the defendant who is on trial for sex crimes against a child is or is not a pedophile. The question of the admissibility of such an opinion was not raised and resolved in Butler v. State, 173 Ga. App. 168 (325 SE2d 835) (1984) or Cooper v. State, 178 Ga. App. 709 (345 SE2d 606) (1986). In Harwood v. State, 195 Ga. App. 465, 466 (1) (394 SE2d 109) (1990), it was undisputed that the defendant had been a pedophile and the expert testimony at issue in that case related solely to the issue of “self rehabilitation.” In Exley v. State, 198 Ga. App. 748-749 (1) (402 SE2d 798) (1991), the expert merely defined the term “pedophile,” “and there was no discussion of appellant’s personal history or traits in connection with the definition of the term.”

In Jennette v. State, 197 Ga. App. 580, 582 (3) (398 SE2d 734) (1990), however, the issue which was raised and resolved was the admissibility of the testimony of an expert “that, after evaluating a battery of psychological profile tests given to appellant, appellant does not fit the profile of a child or adolescent sex abuser.” This court clearly and unequivocally held: “The profile testimony sought to be introduced by appellant goes to the credibility and believability of appellant’s own testimony that he did not commit the acts charged and further speaks to the ultimate fact of whether appellant committed those acts. From the extensive testimony and cross-examination of the various witnesses at trial, the jury, without the help of expert opinion, could have determined the credibility and truthfulness of all the witnesses and could have formed independent opinions as to the victim[’s] truthfulness and the appellant’s capability of performing the acts he was accused of. These determinations did not involve ‘unique and mysterious areas of human response’ necessitating expert testimony.” Jennette v. State, supra at 582-583 (3). Here, as in Jennette, “profile testimony” that, in the opinion of an expert, appellant was or was not a pedophile would not constitute admissible expert testimony.

Judgment affirmed.

Johnson, J., concurs. Pope, J., concurs specially.