United States v. Powers

59 F.3d 1460 (4th Cir. 1995)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D was accused in 1992 of repeatedly raping his daughter. The daughter told her brother that she did not want to be left alone with her father because he had been sexually molesting her. The brother told their mother, who confronted D. D initially denied the allegation about the incest, but then admitted to molesting the daughter. The mother reported the rapes to the authorities. D was indicted on ten counts of engaging in sexual acts with a person under the age of twelve within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2241(c). During trial, D wanted to admit the testimony of Dr. Sciara. He would have testified that D did not demonstrate the psychological profile of a fixated pedophile. The district court ruled that Powers failed to establish either the relevance or the scientific validity of psychological profiling as applied to the facts at issue. D was convicted and appealed in part of the admissibility of Dr. Sciara’s testimony.