Washington Supreme Court Shifts Burden in Rape Cases

Reversing what it called “incorrect and harmful” earlier rulings, the Washington Supreme Court said Thursday the state cannot put the burden on rape defendants to prove that an alleged victim consented — a decision critics said will make it harder to punish dangerous sex offenders.

 

The court had previously ruled that when a defendant claimed the contact was consensual, it was up to the defendant to prove there was consent by a preponderance of the evidence. The rulings essentially made consent an affirmative defense to a rape charge, the way a killer can claim self-defense in a murder case.

 

But in a 6-3 opinion Thursday, the justices said those decisions wrongly interpreted U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Prosecutors must prove every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and making a defendant prove that there was consent got that requirement backward, they said.

 

“Requiring a defendant to do more than raise a reasonable doubt is inconsistent with due-process principles,” Justice Debra Stephens wrote for the majority, saying it raises “a very real possibility of wrongful convictions.”