Mathis v. State

When Richard Mathis went to trial on charges of child sexual abuse, his defense attorney faced a daunting challenge. Mathis faced charges of (1) sexual battery on a child under twelve—“commonly known as capital sexual battery,” Roughton v. State, 185 So.3d 1207, 1208 (Fla. 2016); (2) unlawful sexual activity with a child between twelve and sixteen; and (3) unlawful sexual activity with a child aged sixteen or seventeen. All three counts related to the same victim—Mathis’s niece—but each covered a different time period. The latter two were second-degree felonies, but the first charge was the…