Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
they reversed the burden of proof. But Cummings nowhere suggests that a reversal of the burden of proof is all the fourth category encompasses. And we think there is no good reason to draw a line between laws that lower the burden of proof and laws that reduce the quantum of evidence necessary to meet that burden; the two types of laws are indistinguishable in all meaningful ways relevant to concerns of the Ex Post Facto Clause. See supra, at 530- 534; see also Cummings, 4 Wall., at 325 ("The legal result must be the same, for what cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly. The Constitution deals with substance, not shadows").
As for Texas' second piece of evidence, it asserts that the law in Fenwick's case, requiring two witnesses to convict a person for high treason, traces its origins to the ancient Roman law concept known as the "rule of number," under which "the probative value of testimony would be increased if others testifying to the same facts swore an oath." Brief for Respondent 20. The "less testimony" to which Fenwick's case refers, the argument runs, concerns lowering the probative value required to convict, i. e., a reduction in the burden of proof.
Even if that historical argument were correct, the same response to Texas' Cummings-based argument is applicable. But we think the historical premise is mistaken. If the testimony of one witness rather than two truly reflected a less credible showing, and if the House of Commons truly thought it labored under a lesser burden of proof, then one would expect some sort of reference to that in Fenwick's case. Yet the few direct references to the burden of proof that were made during the debates are to the contrary; they indicate something roughly the equivalent of a beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard.29 And at least one Member expressly de-29 See, e. g., Proceedings 75 ("If upon what I hear, I am of Opinion, he is notoriously Guilty, I shall freely pass the Bill. If I do so much as doubt that he is Guilty, according to the old Rule, Quod dubitas ne feceris
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