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Syllabus
the case of Sir John Fenwick as an example of the fourth category. England charged Fenwick with high treason in the late 17th century, but, under an Act of Parliament, he could not be convicted without the testimony of two witnesses. Parliament passed a bill of attainder making the two-witness rule inapplicable, and Fenwick was convicted on the testimony of only one witness. Pp. 521-530.
(b) Article 38.07 plainly fits within Calder's fourth category. Requiring only the victim's testimony to convict, rather than that testimony plus corroborating evidence, is surely "less testimony required to convict" in any straightforward sense of those words. Indeed, the circumstances here parallel those of Fenwick's case. That Article 38.07 neither increases the punishment for, nor changes the elements of, the offense simply shows that the amendment does not fit within Calder's first or third categories. Pp. 530-531.
(c) The fourth category resonates harmoniously with one of the principal interests that the Ex Post Facto Clause was designed to serve, fundamental justice. A law reducing the quantum of evidence required to convict is as grossly unfair as retrospectively eliminating an element of the offense, increasing punishment for an existing offense, or lowering the burden of proof. In each instance, the government refuses, after the fact, to play by its own rules, altering them in a way that is advantageous only to the State, to facilitate an easier conviction. There is plainly a fundamental fairness interest in having the government abide by the rules of law it establishes to govern the circumstances under which it can deprive a person of his or her liberty or life. Indeed, Fenwick's case itself illustrates this principle. Pp. 531-534.
(d) None of the reasons that the United States as amicus advances for abandoning the fourth category is persuasive. It asserts that the fact that neither Blackstone nor ex post facto clauses in Ratification-era state constitutions mention the fourth category shows that Justice Chase simply got it wrong. Accepting this assertion would require the Court to abandon the third category as well, for it is also not mentioned in any of those sources. And it does not follow from the fact that Fenwick was convicted by a bill of attainder that his case cannot also be an example of an ex post facto law. In fact, all of the specific examples that Justice Chase listed in Calder were passed as bills of attainder. Nor, as the United States and Texas argue, was the fourth category effectively cast out in Collins v. Youngblood, 497 U. S. 37, which actually held that it was a mistake to stray beyond Calder's four categories, not that the fourth category was itself mistaken. Pp. 534-539.
(e) Texas' additional argument that the fourth category is limited to laws that retrospectively alter the burden of proof is also rejected.
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