Enacted in 2007 as part of the Texas Legislature’s package of child sex offenses known as “Jessica’s Law” (mandatory minimum sentencing for certain child sex offenses, lifetime parole restrictions following offender release, lifetime sex offender registration, and restrictions about residency, employment, community involvement, and travel), the continuous sexual abuse of young child or children statute is codified in Texas Penal Code,Section 21.02.
With a mandatory minimum of 25 years to a maximum of 99 years, or life, for a first offense of conviction and a second offense carrying a mandatory life without parole sentence, Section 21.02 is the second most severely punishable crime in Texas, behind only capital murder involving death penalty exposure.It should be notedthat Texas law still permits jurors to consider the death penalty for a repeat conviction for what is called “super” aggravated sexual assault of a child, which can be applicable under Section 21.02.
Probation for offenders convicted under Section 21.02 is not an option. Likewise, an offenderconvictedunder this section is not eligible for parole.
To secure a conviction under Section 21.02, theStatemust prove three essential elements:
The jurors in a Section 21.02 prosecution do not have to unanimously agree on the specific acts of sexual abuse or on thespecificdates that the acts may have occurred. The jury, however, must unanimously agree that twospecificacts of sexual abuse occurred withina 30-day period.
In a 2015 Texas Law Reviewarticle, Dallas attorney Brian Bah put it this way:
“[Continuous Sexual Abuse) statutesare meantto battlea difficultyin convicting child molesters: manyof these cases revolve around alleged repeated sexual abuse with only generic evidence available since the child in question has difficulty providing event-specific evidence.I use the term ‘generic evidence’ to refer to evidence regarding abusein generalthat is not specific to anyoneparticular event in time.There isatensionpresentbetween trying to enforce offenses like this and traditional notionsimbeddedin our criminal law system.CSA statutes have been written by states to increase prosecutors’ ability to convict child molesters, yet to do thisCSAstatutesactuallyfocus on proxies for this sort of continuous abuse, rather than having to prove the individual bad acts themselves. Thus, CSA statutes allow a defendant tobe convictedwithout jury agreement onparticularspecific acts committed, as long as the requisite number of acts can be agreed on, along with other requirements depending on thestate.”
The following sexual offenses constitute sexual abuse:
Per a 2017 amendment to Section 21.02, this offense canbe prosecutedregardless of any deceptive meansutilized by the victimto conceal theirrealage. The act is all that matters.
Also, there is no statute of limitation under Section 21.02. That indicates just how serious the State of Texas considers this offense.
The seriousness of the offense and the associated penalties demand the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney to develop a viable defense. Jurors are sworn into jury duty in sex crime cases with inherent biases against the defendant, regardless of their assertions on voir dire about being “fair and impartial.” That is the reality facing the defendant and defense counsel in these cases.
The best defense against a continuous sexual abuse of a child charge rests with demonstrating reasonable doubt. Defense counsel must give at least one juror reason to have reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt. Defense lawyers canbe accomplishthis in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:
Within this investigative framework, there may be enough cause for reasonable doubt to secure an acquittal or, at the very least, a hung jury.
These cases are inherently dangerous given our natural biases, which lead us to believe and protect our children.Defense lawyerscan only overcome the biases with preparation, skill, and experience in dealing with these most complex cases.
Fields marked with an * are required
"*" indicates required fields
Notifications