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No. 01-1757 Stogner v. California - FindLaw: Supreme Court Center

No. 01-1757 Stogner v. California - FindLaw: Supreme Court Center

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28<br />

Id. at 532-33 (citation and footnote omitted). The <strong>Court</strong><br />

concluded that “[t]he relevant question is whether the law<br />

affects the quantum of evidence required to convict.” Id. at<br />

551. The answer was yes with respect to the Texas statute<br />

at issue in Carmell.<br />

When asked in relation to a law that changes the<br />

statute of limitations, the answer is no. A change in the<br />

statute of limitations does nothing to alter the State’s<br />

evidentiary burden to prove the commission of the charged<br />

offense; it simply regulates the time at which a crime<br />

defined and punished elsewhere may be charged. The<br />

State still must prove the defendant’s guilt by establishing<br />

all the elements of the charged crimes that it would have<br />

had to prove at the time they were alleged to have been<br />

committed, and it still must do so by proof beyond a<br />

reasonable doubt. See People v. Frazer, 21 Cal. 4th at 760.<br />

“The quantum and kind of proof required to establish<br />

guilt, and all questions which may be considered by the<br />

court and jury in determining guilt or innocence, remain<br />

the same.” Beazell v. Ohio, 269 U.S. at 170. Hence, this is<br />

not the type of law that impermissibly attempts to rectify<br />

a “deficiency of legal proof” in violation of the fourth<br />

Calder category. Wooddeson, at 633-34, quoted in Carmell,<br />

529 U.S. at 523-24 n.12. Indeed, it is for these same<br />

reasons that this also is not the type of law that violates<br />

the first Calder category, of which it is a “mirror image.”<br />

Carmell, 529 U.S. at 533.<br />

D. The Purposes of the Ex Post Facto Clause<br />

Are <strong>No</strong>t Implicated by a Retroactive<br />

Change in a Statute of Limitations<br />

As noted at the outset, the Ex Post Facto Clause<br />

serves to assure that legislative acts give fair warning of

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