They don’t have to. The prosecution needs to prove that the “victim” didn’t say yes.
No, this is not a criminal statute, it is a policy that will be forced on all public colleges in California. There is no “presumption of innocence” mandated in academic hearings.
The bill would require the institutions to have:
“(3) A policy that the standard used in determining whether the elements of the complaint against the accused have been demonstrated is the preponderance of the evidence.”
That’s a much lower standard than used in criminal proceedings. It’s what used in civil cases, and it basically amounts to, if 51% of the evidence presented points to guilt, you are guilty.
“The prosecution needs to prove that the ‘victim’ didn’t say yes.”
One would hope so, but given today’s rabidly feminist all-men-are-rapists world we are in, the mere allegation is sometimes, many times, enough. . .especially in a university setting where standards of proof are twisted and inverted.
One would hope, but one would be wrong.