State v. Giordano

The plaintiff in error was convicted in the Essex Quarter Sessions of the crime of unlawfully receiving stolen property in violation of R. S. 2:164-1. The statute provides that possession within a year from the date of theft shall be deemed sufficient evidence to authorize conviction. Assuming that the legislature merely meant to clarify the common law doctrine that unexplained possession of goods recently stolen raised a presumption that they had been illegally received and imposed a duty upon the possessor to ■explain his possession, we are then brought to a consideration ■of the charge of…