Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
number of witnesses or items of proof to support a sexual assault conviction.6
The Court also declares several times that the amended version of Article 38.07 "subverts the presumption of innocence." See ante, at 532; see also ante, at 533, nn. 22, 23, 546. The phrase comes from Cummings v. Missouri, 4 Wall. 277 (1867), in which the Court struck down a series of post-Civil War amendments to the Missouri Constitution that imposed penalties on persons unable or unwilling to swear an oath that they had not aided the Confederacy. The amendments, the Court said in Cummings, "subvert the presumptions of innocence" because "[t]hey assume that the parties are guilty [and] . . . call upon [them] to establish their innocence" by swearing the oath. Id., at 328. Nothing of the kind is involved here. Article 38.07 did not impose a presumption of guilt on Carmell and then saddle him with the task of overcoming it. The burden of persuasion remained at all times with the State. See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann., Art. 38.03 (Vernon Supp. 2000). Carmell's presumption of innocence is thus untouched by the current Article 38.07's recognition of K. M.'s full testimonial stature.
The Court places perhaps its greatest weight on the "sufficiency of the evidence" label, see ante, at 547-552, but the label will not stick. As just noted, Article 38.07 has never dictated what it takes in all cases, quantitatively or qualitatively, for evidence to be sufficient to convict. To the contrary, under both the old and new versions of the statute the
6 Moreover, even in a case founded on the victim's testimony, the pre-1993 version of Article 38.07 would permit the prosecution to corroborate that testimony without introducing any additional evidence going to the defendant's guilt, because corroboration could be provided by outcry, which is hearsay and inadmissible to prove the truth of the matter asserted. See Heckathorne v. State, 697 S. W. 2d 8, 12 (Tex. App. 1985) ("[A]n outcry should not be admitted for its truth, but merely as evidence that the victim informed someone of the offense.").
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