George Colson v. Hoyt C. Cupp, Superintendent, Oregon State Penitentiary

Colson appeals from an order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his Oregon conviction for attempted burglary of a warehouse. 1 He claims that the following instruction to the jury unconstitutionally shifted the burden of proof:

“The law presumes that a person intends all the natural, probable, and usual consequences of his deliberate acts. The law also presumes that an unlawful act was done with an unlawful intent. These are rebuttable presumptions.”

Assuming, without deciding, that the Oregon law creates a legal presumption, rather than an inference (see McAbee v.…