Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 591

529US2

Unit: $U52

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516

CARMELL v. TEXAS

Opinion of the Court

General Robinson, Deputy Solicitor General Dreeben, and
Vicki S. Marani.*

Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.
An amendment to a Texas statute that went into effect on
September 1, 1993, authorized conviction of certain sexual
offenses on the victim’s testimony alone. The previous stat-
ute required the victim’s testimony plus other corroborating
evidence to convict the offender. The question presented
is whether that amendment may be applied in a trial for
offenses committed before the amendment’s effective date
without violating the constitutional prohibition against state
“ex post facto” laws.

I

In 1996, a Texas grand jury returned a 15-count indictment
charging petitioner with various sexual offenses against his
stepdaughter. The alleged conduct took place over more
than four years, from February 1991 to March 1995, when
the victim was 12 to 16 years old. The conduct ceased after
the victim told her mother what had happened. Petitioner
was convicted on all 15 counts. The two most serious counts
charged him with aggravated sexual assault, and petitioner
was sentenced to life imprisonment on those two counts.

*Robert P. Marcovitch and Barbara Bergman ﬁled a brief for the Na-
tional Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as amicus curiae urging
reversal.

A brief of amici curiae urging afﬁrmance was ﬁled for the State of
Kansas et al. by Carla J. Stovall, Attorney General of Kansas, and Stephen
R. McAllister, State Solicitor, joined by the Attorneys General for their
respective States as follows: Janet Napolitano of Arizona, M. Jane Brady
of Delaware, Robert A. Butterworth of Florida, Jeffrey A. Modisett of
Indiana, Richard P. Ieyoub of Louisiana, Jennifer M. Granholm of Michi-
gan, Joe Mazurek of Montana, Don Stenberg of Nebraska, Frankie Sue
Del Papa of Nevada, Betty D. Montgomery of Ohio, W. A. Drew Edmond-
son of Oklahoma, Charles M. Condon of South Carolina, Jan Graham
of Utah, William H. Sorrell of Vermont, and Christine O. Gregoire of
Washington.