Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 628.0

529US2

Unit: $U52

[09-26-01 10:36:40] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)

553

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

defect of the laws, provide against the commission of
future crimes of the same sort. The escape of one de-
linquent can never produce so much harm to the com-
munity, as may arise from the infraction of a rule, upon
which the purity of public justice, and the existence of
3 Commentaries on
civil liberty, essentially depend.’ ”
the Constitution § 1338, at 211, n. 2.

And, of course, nothing in the Ex Post Facto Clause prohibits
Texas’ prospective application of its amendment. Accord-
ingly, the judgment of the Texas Court of Appeals is re-
versed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not
inconsistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Justice Ginsburg, with whom The Chief Justice, Jus-

tice O’Connor, and Justice Kennedy join, dissenting.

The Court today holds that the amended version of Article
38.07 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure reduces the
amount of proof necessary to support a sexual assault con-
viction, and that its retroactive application therefore violates
the Ex Post Facto Clause.
In so holding, the Court mis-
reads both the Texas statute and our precedents concerning
the Ex Post Facto Clause. Article 38.07 is not, as the Court
would have it, most accurately characterized as a “sufﬁciency
of the evidence rule”; it is in its essence an evidentiary pro-
vision dictating the circumstances under which the jury may
credit victim testimony in sexual offense prosecutions. The
amended version of Article 38.07 does nothing more than
accord to certain victims of sexual offenses full testimonial
stature, giving them the same undiminished competency to
testify that Texas extends to witnesses generally in the
State’s judicial proceedings. Our precedents make clear
that such a witness competency rule validly may be applied
to offenses committed before its enactment.
I therefore
dissent.