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John Avery Coy
"A 55-year-old Shippenville man facing a trial on charges of sexual abuse of children was once at the center of a landmark case in Iowa which resulted in his conviction being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.John Avery Coy is charged with second-degree felony sexual abuse of children; felony permitting a child to engage in a prohibited sex act; third-degree felony endangering the welfare of children and first-degree misdemeanor indecent exposure and corruption of minors between September 2004 and January 2006...
Iowa case
In August, 1985, in Clinton , Iowa , two 13-year-old girls built a tent using a picnic table and blankets in the backyard of one of the girls home.
Sometime during the night, a man entered the tent in which the girls were sleeping and grabbed one of the girls by her throat.
The man allegedly told the girls to take off all their clothes and put the girls underwear into a bag he was carrying. The man allegedly fondled and kissed the girls.
According to an account of the allegation published in a 1991 book by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy entitled, "In our defense, the Bill of Rights in action," the man in the tent also ordered the girls to kiss each other, to fondle him and perform oral sex acts on him.
According to the account offered in the Alderman/Kennedy book, the assault lasted about 90 minutes and involved other alleged acts. The man then tied the naked girls up with their clothes and left the tent."
Following an investigation by Clinton police during which testimony was provided by the victims and neighbors, Coy, then 34, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Neighbors entered Coys home and allegedly found a cup in the trash which appeared in part to corroborate part of the girls testimony. Police were alerted to the cup, a search warrant was secured, and the cup and other items familiar to items the girls described their assailant as carrying were found.
Coy was then charged with two counts of lascivious acts with a child.
At the time of the trial there was no DNA testing and the case was based almost entirely on the testimony of the girls which at times was conflicting.
Four months prior to the pending trial, the Iowa legislature had passed a law allowing child witnesses under the age of 14 to testified via closed-circuit television or from behind a screen or mirror.
At a preliminary hearing, Coys attorney objected to the use of the closed-circuit television system asserting the system violated Coys Sixth Amendment right to "be confronted with the witnesses against him."
Following five days of testimony and five hours of jury deliberations in November, 1985, Coy was convicted of the charges against him and sentenced to two consecutive five-year terms in the prison the maximum sentence allowed in the case.
Coy appealed the conviction on the Sixth Amendment argument to the Iowa Supreme Court.
The Iowa Supreme Court upheld the conviction and Coy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1988, by a 6-2 margin, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Iowa Supreme Court based largely on the Sixth Amendment. The Iowa Supreme Court then ordered a new trial for Coy.
According to the Alderman/Kennedy book, the victims in the case, by then 17 years old, refused to go through another trial.
Alderman and Kennedy, in closing the "In our defense, the Bill of Rights in action," chapter on Coy and the Sixth Amendment case, wrote Coy married the woman with whom he was living and "moved with her and her daughter to Pennsylvania."
Full story here:
http://www2.theclarionnews.com/General_News/58814.shtml