Jeffrey Clyde Pitts v. State of Mississippi

Summary

The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed Pitts’s sexual-battery conviction, holding that the child-witness screen authorized by Mississippi Code Section 99-43-101(2)(g) did not violate his confrontation rights. The statute unambiguously permits a screen without a case-specific finding of emotional trauma, and the confrontation guarantee was satisfied because the child testified live under oath before the jury, was fully cross-examined, and remained observable to the jury while Pitts could observe her through a live video feed.