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Rock V. Arkansas Case Study

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Rock v. Arkansas was a case, which took place in 1983. The defendant, Vickie Lorene Rock, was charged with manslaughter. She was convicted of killing her husband in July 1983. The defendant was unable to remember everything that had happened the night of her husbands killing. So therefore her defense attorney had a doctor, by the name of Bettye Back, twice hypnotize Vickie Rock to allow her to remember fully what happened the night she killed her husband. During her hypnotic sessions she was unable to remember details of what happened at the time of killing her husband. After her two hypnosis sessions were over she was able to remember distinct details about what had apparently happened during the shooting of Frank Rock, her husband. The prosecutor heard about how the defendant was under a hypnotic state when she was giving her recorded testimony. He ordered a petition to exclude the testimony due to the evidence being inadmissible. The court had then limited Rock’s testimony only to the day of her description from the time …show more content…

The court appealed this case because although the reason to challenge the Supreme Court was in the case of defying the Sixth Amendment. The court stated the Sixth Amendment was to make a defendant’s testimony admissible on behalf of the court he or she is being tried at. The reason the Supreme Court appealed this case was because although, the state of Arkansas and other states have used and allowed the testimonies of hypnosis to be admissible in the court, they felt it was an inaccurate way for the defendant to regain memory. Although, the hypnosis did allow Rock to recollect memories, which happened at the death of her husband, the doctor did not lead the interview with direct questions. This then allowed the court to rule the evidence inadmissible because of some of the arbitrary questions asked by Dr.

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