Dudley v. State
Annotate this CaseThe State charged Defendant in a two-count information with unlawful commission of a sexual battery on a “mentally defective” person over the age of twelve. The jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts. The trial court set aside the guilty verdicts and dismissed the charges, concluding that the State had not presented sufficient credible evidence to satisfy its burden of proving that the victim was “mentally defective” beyond a reasonable doubt. The court of appeal reversed and reinstated the guilty verdicts, holding that the evidence was sufficient to support a jury finding that the victim was mentally defective. The Supreme Court approved the court of appeal’s decision, concluding that the court of appeal properly construed the sexual battery statute to determine that the term “mentally defective” connotes significantly diminished judgment and could not reasonably be read to mean a total lack of mental capacity.
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