Debbie Riddle

Appeals Court Upholds Jessica’s Law Statute

// June 22nd, 2010 // Uncategorized

AUSTIN – The Third Texas Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Belton
Little League coach who was sentenced to life in prison under the Texas version
of Jessica’s Law.

Representative Debbie Riddle, who authored the Texas Jessica Lunsford Act in
2007, said the ruling confirms the state’s commitment to imposing the harshest
penalties on pedophiles.

“Our number one priority is to make sure the safety and security of our citizens
is well established,” Riddle said. “That priority takes on a special urgency
when it comes to fiercely defending our children from predators who seek to do
them harm.”

William Thomas Jacobsen had been found guilty of molesting two children on his
baseball team during a sleep-over at his house. But Jacobsen sought to have the
conviction overturned on appeal by asserting that a statute created by Jessica’s
Law violated Texas’ constitutional requirement that a guilty verdict in a felony
case be unanimous.

The statute in question, a crime called “Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young
Child or Children,” allows the commission of two or more acts of sexual assault
against victims younger than 14 years old to be grouped together in a single
charge that carries a mandatory-minimum prison sentence of 25 years, as oppose
to the five-year minimum for most first-degree felonies. The statute specifies
that a jury does not have to agree as to which sex acts were committed, as long
as they all agree that two or more specific acts of sexual abuse actually took
place over a period of 30 or more days.

The court of appeals ruled that the statute satisfied the jury unanimity
requirement of the constitution.

“When there is evidence of more than two acts of abuse over the specified time
period, [the statute] makes it clear that the jurors need not agree as to which
individual acts were committed so long as they agree that the defendant
committed at least two,” the court wrote in its opinion. “Because the jury in
this case was required to unanimously find that [Jacobsen] committed two or more
of the alleged acts of sexual abuse, his right to a unanimous jury verdict was
not violated.”

Riddle said she believes the ruling will be heard next by the Court of Criminal
Appeals, but she expects the state’s highest criminal court to uphold the
conviction as well.

“These pedophiles who repeatedly molest little children are undoubtedly the
absolute worst of the worst criminals anywhere,” Riddle said. “I am proud of the
fact that our state has a history of treating them sternly, and I am confident
that trend will continue.”