Hogan v. State

Citations

• 127 Miss. 407
• 90 So. 99

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law. Homicide. Circumstantial evidence must ex chide every other hypothesis; evidence leaving it indifferent which hypothesis is true is insufficient; evidence held insufficient to sustain conviction of murder.</p> <p>While circumstantial evidence is in its nature capable of producing the higest degree of moral certainty, yet experience and authority admonish us that it is a species of evidence in the application of which the utmost caution and vigilance should be used. It is always insufficient, where, assuming all to be true which the evidence tends to prove, some other hypothesis may still be true, for it is the actual exclusion of every other hypothesis which invests mere circumstances with the force of truth. Whenever the evidence leaves it indifferent which of several hypotheses is true, or merely establishes some finite probability in favor of one hypothesis rather than another, such evidence cannot amount to proof, however great the probability may be. The facts in this case examined, and held insufficient to sustain a conviction.</p>