Jackson v. Virginia

The Constitution prohibits the criminal conviction of any person except upon proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In re Winship, 397 U. S. 358. The question in this case is what standard is to be applied in a federal habeas corpus proceeding when the claim is made that a person has been convicted in a state court upon insufficient evidence.

I

The petitioner was convicted after a bench trial in the Circuit Court of Chesterfield Count y, Va., of the first-degree murder of a woman named Mary Houston Cole.1 Under Virginia law, murder is defined as “the unlawful killing of another with malice…