Copley v. State

The plaintiff in error was charged with burning the storehouse of Stockton Bros, in Fentress county, and convicted of arson in this connection. He has appealed in error to this court.

The case must be reversed, since there is not sufficient proof of the corptis delicti. One of the Stockton brothers testified that the store was destroyed by fire. There was nothing in his evidence, however, to indicate a felonious burning. The only items of evidence which could be said to point to a criminal agency about this fire were statements made by the plaintiff in error and statements made by his wife, in…