Scott v. State

The evidence against the defendants was wholly circumstantial, and where that is the case, in order to sustain a conviction all the essential facts from which it is necessary to infer the direct fact must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. And such circumstantial evidence must not only be consistent with defendants’ guilt but it must be inconsistent with any other rational conclusion or reasonable hypothesis, and such as to leave no reasonable doubt of their guilt. Tested by this rule we think the evidence fails to sustain the conviction. The circumstantial facts here established were (1)…