You Have The Right To Remain Cuddly!

Does the presence of a dog in the courtroom unfairly influence the jury?

That’s the issue in upstate New York, where the first officially sanctioned ‘court dog’ is accused by defense attorneys of lending false credibility to the testimony of a teenager testifying in a rape case.
In the last several years, several states, including Washington and Arizona, have quietly been allowing specially trained dogs to accompany children and the disabled to the witness box as emotional support.
Public defenders for the accused, and now convicted, rapist agree that dogs like Rosie provide a source of comfort for stressed witnesses. But are the witnesses uncomfortable because they are confronting their attacker, or because they are fabricating a story? They argue that juries perceive the witness as being uncomfortable speaking harsh truths on the stand and that leads them to believe the witness is credible.
"I can’t cross examine the dog," added one of the attorneys.
For more on the use of dogs in the legal system see www.courthousedogs.com.
Your thoughts?