Exclusion of Witnesses
A victim’s right to attend the trial is often limited in cases
where the victim is also a witness in the criminal case. A longstanding rule of evidence provides for the exclusion, or “sequestering,” of witnesses during the trial. This rule was designed to prevent witnesses from being influenced by the testimony of other witnesses in the case. Some jurisdictions require any witness to be excluded on the request of a party while others leave exclusion to the discretion of the judge. Increasingly, jurisdictions are changing this rule on witnesses to allow victims to remain in the courtroom even when they will be a witness, or require the court to first rule that the victim’s testimony is likely to be influenced by the testimony of other witnesses before ordering the victim to be kept out of the courtroom.
https://victimlaw.org/victimlaw/pages/victimsRight.jsp
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