Opinion ID: 1868873
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Impermissible Shifting of the Burden of Proof

Text: The state further contends that the trial court erroneously found that R.S. 51:721(A) shifts the burden of proof to defendants. The trial court reasoned and defendants contend that 721(A) is unconstitutional because it places the burden of proof on defendants to show that their conduct did not fall within the purview of the securities law because a valid exemption applies. According to defendants, this subsection permits the state to obtain a conviction without having to prove every element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This, however, is a misreading of the applicable jurisprudence detailed supra. La. R.S. 51:701 et seq has codified what the state legislature has determined will be criminal conduct in the securities field. Within this chapter, the legislature has also codified certain exemptions/exceptions. See La. R.S. 51:708 (Exempt securities); 51:709 (Exempt transactions). By creating these exemptions, in effect the legislature has provided for a type of affirmative defense for defendants. The legislature has also mandated that the defendant carry the burden of proving the existence of the exemption.... La. R.S. 51:721(A). This type of burden shifting is found in many criminal statutes and is not unconstitutional because proof of the defense does not necessarily negate an essential element of the crime. Patterson v. New York, supra . Furthermore, the type of statutory construction which shifts the burden of proof to the defendant to prove he fits into a codified exemption/exception has been utilized in numerous other criminal statutes. La. R.S. 14:76, which criminalizes bigamy, is an example of such a statute which has codified specific defenses or exemptions to the statute and has placed the burden of their proof upon the defendant. Bigamy is defined as the marriage to another person by a person already married and having a husband or wife living.... La. R.S. 14:76. A defendant, however, will not be convicted, if he can show, that his previous spouse was absent at the time of the second marriage for five successive years without being known to such person, within that time, to be living.... La. R.S. 14:76(1); see State v. Cain, 106 La. 708, 31 So. 300 (1902) (Court held where a defendant, prosecuted for bigamy, undertook to show that he contracted the second marriage in the honest belief that the first had been dissolved by a decree of divorce, the burden was on him to show reasonable grounds for such belief and that he did so believe). In addition, it has generally been held by both federal and state courts that the burden of proof (or specifically the burden of persuasion) may properly be placed upon the defendant as to other affirmative defenses or exemptions such as insanity, intoxication, duress and self-defense. See LaFave and Scott, Substantive Criminal Law, § 1.8, p. 75. In the instant case, the burden shifting language of this section is constitutionally permissible because proof of the exemption does not necessarily negate an essential element of the crime. AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART.