DES MOINES – The Iowa Supreme Court was asked Wednesday to make an exception in the law and allow children to testify by videotape in sex abuse cases.

Without such an exception, relatives of two murdered Iowa girls said abusers will only be encouraged to forever silence their victims by killing them.

The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether Jetseta Gage’s videotaped interview may be used by prosecutors against her alleged abuser.

James Howard Bentley, 35, of Cedar Rapids, has been charged in Linn and Benton counties with second-degree sexual abuse for molesting Gage.

Gage details the abuse in the videotaped interview with a child protection worker at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids.

Bentley has sought to suppress the tape, claiming it would violate his Sixth Amendment right to face his accuser.

A district court judge, citing a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, concluded allowing the tape to be shown in court would violate Bentley’s constitutional rights.

In a 2003 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court found courts had strayed from the intent of the Sixth Amendment. It said the only way to ensure that testimony is reliable is to permit the defendant to confront the witness.

The problem in Bentley’s case is that Gage cannot testify because she was kidnapped and killed in March 2005 by Bentley’s older brother, Roger Bentley. She was 10 years old.