Evidence: credibility of witnesses and evidence affected or excluded by extrinsic policies.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on the consequences if evidence is allowed in court or how it will affect ongoing cases.

Evidence Rules for Sexual Offenses

This law changes how courts handle evidence and witness credibility in sexual offense cases, including those that happen in prisons or jails.

What This Bill Does

• Removes an exception to rules about introducing evidence of a victim's past sexual conduct in court during rape or other specified sexual crime trials.
• Applies the same procedures for handling such evidence to cases involving local detention facilities and state prisons as well.
• Prohibits using opinion, reputation, or specific instances of sexual conduct with people other than the defendant to prove consent in sex crimes cases.
• Extends this prohibition to include cases that happen in local detention facilities and state prisons.

Who It Names or Affects

• Courts handling rape and other sexual offense cases
• People accused of sexual offenses
• Victims of sexual offenses

Terms To Know

Extrinsic policies

Rules that affect how evidence is used in court.

Local detention facility or state prison

Places like jails and prisons where people are held while awaiting trial or serving sentences.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify what happens if the evidence is allowed in court.
• It's unclear how this change will affect current cases already in progress.
• There may be additional rules and procedures that courts need to follow when applying these changes.

Official Summary Text

AB 2556, as introduced, Boerner.
Evidence: credibility of witnesses and evidence affected or excluded by extrinsic policies.
(1) Existing law sets forth the procedure by which, in any prosecution for rape or other specified sexual offenses, evidence of sexual conduct of the complaining witness may be offered to attack the credibility of the complaining witness. This procedure involves, among other things, the filing of a written motion by the defendant, accompanied by an affidavit filed under seal stating an offer of proof, and, if the court determines that the offer is sufficient, a hearing out of the presence of the jury regarding the offer of proof. At the conclusion of the hearing, the court may make an order stating what evidence may be introduced by the defendant. Under existing law, these procedures do not apply if the specified offenses are alleged to have occurred in a local detention facility or state prison, as defined.
This bill would
remove this exception, thereby also applying these procedures to specified offenses alleged to have occurred in a local detention facility or state prison.
(2) Existing law provides that evidence of a person’s character or a trait of their character is generally inadmissible when offered to prove the person’s conduct on a specified occasion. Existing law prohibits, during the prosecution of specified sex crimes, the admission of, among other things, opinion evidence, reputation evidence, or specific instances of sexual conduct involving the victim and persons other than the defendant to prove the victim’s consent. This prohibition does not apply to specified offenses alleged to have occurred in a local detention facility or state prison, as defined.
This bill would additionally remove this exception, thereby also prohibiting the admission of such evidence in the prosecution of specified offenses
alleged to have occurred in a local detention facility or state prison.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF