What is the test for determining whether there is an aggravating circumstance in a sexual assault case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Mickey, 286 Cal.Rptr. 801, 54 Cal.3d 612, 818 P.2d 84 (Cal. 1991):

20 We note that the trial court gave the following instruction: "Before you may consider a particular aggravating circumstance to be true, you must be satisfied of the existence of that aggravating circumstance beyond a reasonable doubt." Rightly so. The only potential circumstances in aggravation comprised crimes, present adjudicated or prior unadjudicated. The reasonable doubt standard, of course, applies both to the former (see, e.g., Pen.Code, 1096) and to the latter (see, e.g., People v. Benson, supra, 52 Cal.3d at p. 809, 276 Cal.Rptr. 827, 802 P.2d 330).

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