State v. Merrick
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
Exceptions from the District Court. This was an indictment for feloniously stealing, taking and carrying away sixty-three sheep, the property of Baxter Crowell. The defendant pleaded that he was not guilty.
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Exceptions from the District Court. This was an indictment for feloniously stealing, taking and carrying away sixty-three sheep, the property of Baxter Crowell. The defendant pleaded that he was not guilty. Evidence was introduced by the government, tending to show that the sheep belonged to said Crowell, and were stolen from him on Friday the twenty-fifth day of October, 1839, after a late hour in the afternoon of that day, and that tSie same were found in the possession of the defendant afterwards on the evening of the same Friday, ho claiming Shorn as his own, and exercising acts of…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Weston C. J.
In prosecutions for larceny, where the goods are proved to have been stolen, it is a rule of law, applicable in these cases, that possession by the accused, soon after they were stolen, raises a reasonable presumption of his guilt. And unless he can account for that possession, consistently with his innocence, will justify his conviction. c: Evidence of this nature is by no means conclusive, and it is stronger or weaker, as the possession is more or less recent.” 2 Stark. 449. Such evidence is sufficient to make out a prima facie case, on…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Kelly v. JacksonSupreme Court of the United States · 1832
3Cited by15 opinions
- State v. LangleySupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1968
- State v. PoulinSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1971
- State v. MosherSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1970
- State v. WingoSupreme Court of Missouri · 1877
- State v. BarrettSupreme Judicial Court of Maine · 1969
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