The burden of proof is something that someone, who is accused of any kind of sex offense should think about when they look for legal advice. In Austin, TX, the best way of facing such allegations is with the help of a defense attorney and they will guide you towards the idea in a clear way.
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Standards to Follow
Here are some standards that should be followed while facing a sex offense crime.
Beyond a reasonable doubt
Sex crime and its standard of proof are known by the term ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. This is the burden for the legal advisors and they should come up with the right proof that can prove the defendant is guilty of the sex crime charges that are filed against them. The main focus here will be to prove that the defendant did commit the crime, even though it goes beyond any rational or logical explanation.
Reasonable doubt element standards
These are proven in two different ways, as per the court of Texas. They are,
- Burden of protection
- Burden of persuasion
The burden of persuasion is the work of the prosecutors to persuade the jury members that they have established the offense with all possible elements related to the crime, which is beyond the reasonable doubt.
The burden of production focuses on gathering all the information related to the case so that it can become powerful evidence from their side.
Statute of Limitations
In case of the burden of proof, the attorneys, who are representing the victim of the sexual assault case should first abide by the law of statute of limitations in Texas. Every crime has a statute of limitation and crossing this time will make the case nullified or unqualified for the processing. The same goes for the sex crime cases too.
Some of the sex crimes in Texas do not have any statute of limitations. They are,
- Indecent behavior with the child in a sexual abuse case
- The case of an aggravated assault of a child
- Continuous child sexual abuse
- Adult sexual assault cases
However, the statute of limitations will cross after 20 years for some sex crime cases. They are.
- Child sexual performance
- Kidnapping to commit a sexual offense
- The habit of committing a burglary with the main intention of committing a sexual offense
The statute will pass for some cases after 10 years such as,
- Adult aggravated sexual assault
- Adult sexual assault without any availability of DNA evidence
Difficulty in the Standard to Prove the Sexual Assault
Some sexual assault cases including rape cases cannot be proven just with the idea of reasonable doubt. This should prove some basic requirements of the case from the victim’s side such as violence, coercion, and physical force implication.
During such cases, the victim cannot just prove that they said “no” and instead should prove that the sexual assault happened because of the overcoming of the refusal of the victim by force.
