Cite as: 529 U. S. 513 (2000)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
same results as the actual statute in every case. Not "in certain instances," ante, at 551, or "in some situations," ante, at 550, but in every case.9 Recognizing this equivalency, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has noted that the Texas accomplice corroboration rule is "a mere rule of evidence" even though "statutorily worded as a sufficiency standard." Malik v. State, 953 S. W. 2d 234, 240, n. 6 (1997).10
In sum, the function and purpose of the corroboration requirement embedded in the former version of Article 38.07 was to ensure the credibility of the victim's testimony, not otherwise to impede the defendant's conviction. Our precedents, I explain next, make clear that the retroactive repeal
9 The Court contends that the effect of Article 38.07 is distinct from that of a witness competency rule because noncompliance with the former dictates acquittal ex proprio vigore while noncompliance with the latter dictates acquittal "in combination with the normally operative sufficiency rule." Ante, at 552, n. 35. This is a distinction without a difference, because the "normally operative sufficiency rule" in question—when the prosecution submits no admissible evidence, its case will be deemed insufficient—is a bedrock requirement of due process, applicable in every criminal trial.
10 The Court observes that the characterization of a state law under the Ex Post Facto Clause is a federal question. Ante, at 544, n. 31. This undoubtedly correct observation stands in some tension, however, with the Court's reliance on the assertion that "Texas courts treat Article 38.07 as a sufficiency of the evidence rule." Ante, at 518, n. 2. In any event, the latter assertion is inaccurate, as Malik's discussion of the accomplice corroboration rule suggests. It is true that a trial court's failure to comply with Article 38.07 results on appeal in the entry of an order of acquittal. But it is not true that the remedy on appeal for the introduction of inadmissible evidence is always a remand for a new trial. When the only evidence introduced by the prosecution is evidence that may not be considered by a jury in determining the defendant's guilt, the proper result is always acquittal. By the same reasoning, as this Court decided just this Term, when a court of appeals has found that evidence was improperly admitted in a civil trial and that the remaining evidence is insufficient, it may enter judgment as a matter of law rather than ordering a new trial. Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U. S. 440 (2000).
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