Green v. State

Citations

• 67 Miss. 356

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law. Assault withintent to commit rape. Evidence. Casein judgment.</p> <p>On a trial for assault with intent to commit rape, the evidence showed that the prosecutrix was riding alone on horse-back along the highway, when the defendant, a negro man and stranger, who had followed her on foot a short distance, ran up and caught her riding-skirt with one hand, where- . upon she urged on her horse and escaped, the defendant fleeing in another direction. Held, that the evidence was insufficient to support a verdict of guilty.</p> <p>2. Same. Conjecture. Mere probability of guilt insufficient to convict.</p> <p>It is conjecture, and not an inference reasonably drawn from the evidence that the defendant intended a rape rather than robbery or murder. Mere probability of guilt of a particular crime, and that, too, springing more •from instinct than from facts proved, cannot support a conviction.</p>