Sims v. State

The accused was convicted of arson, and excepts to the overruling of his motion for a new trial. The principal ground insisted on is that there was no proof of the corpus delicti. In a case of this kind it takes more than proof of the burning to warrant a conviction; it must appear from evidence, either direct or circumstantial, to a reasonable and moral certainty that the house was burned by some criminal agency. West v. State, 6 Ga. App. 105 (64: S. E. 130). There was proof in this ease of a confession, but it is well settled that the corpus delicti must be proved aliunde the confession.…