Harris v. State
Summary
Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.
Opinion of the Court
Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.
Wade, O. J.
1. The corpus delicti, as well as any other substantive fact in a criminal case, may be proved by circumstantial evidence; but where such evidence alone is relied upon to show a violation of a penal law, it must be “so conclusive as to exclude every reasonable hypothesis other than that a crime has been committed.” Ray v. State, 4 Ga. App. 67 (2), 70 ( 60 S. E. 816 ). There was no dii-eet evidence in this case that any cottonseed had been stolen, and the circumstances in proof were insufficient to establish the fact to the exclusion of every other reasonable hypothesis. The trial judge, therefore, erred in ovrruling the motion for a new trial.
2. The exceptions not dealt with above either relate to matters which can scarcely recur on another trial, or else need not be considered, in view of the foregoing ruling.
Judgment reversed.
George and Luke, JJ., concur.
How later courts describe this case
No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.
Cited by 5 cases
View all citing references →Relies on it most ⓘ
Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.