Anyone relying on outcry statements as proof of child abuse may want to be familiar with the oral arguments in Ohio v. Clark. Confront This. What makes an out-of-court statement a valid or usable "substitute for trial testimony" has not yet been satisfactorily answered or defined. Maybe juries are better able to determine reliability/credibility than judges and absolute rules must be tempered to achieve justice (whether you call them hearsay/confrontation exceptions or something else).