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117 Ala. 138

Bones v. State

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1897

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1897-11-15

Tried before the Hon. N. H. Thompson. The appellant was tried and convicted for an assault with a weapon. The evidence for the State tended to show that the defendant assaulted one West Morris with a knife. The evidence for the defendant tended to show that it was some other person than the defendant who had the knife, and that the defendant did not strike at West Morris with a knife, or otherwise.

Relies on Griffith v. State · Whitaker v. State · Bain v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1897-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently March 1989 · most notably 546 So. 2d 1014 - White v. State (1989), Davis v. State (1913)

25 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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HARALSON, J.

¶11. Charges 6 and 11, which were refused, each assert the same correct principle, that if there was a probability of defendant’s innocence, the defendant should be found not guilty. A probability of defendant’s innocence is the equivalent of a reasonable doubt of guilt, which requires his acquittal. — Bain v. The State, 74 Ala. 38; Croft v. The State, 95 Ala. 3; Whitaker v. The State, 106 Ala. 30.

¶22. The 9th charge was properly refused. The law does not require full proof of guilt — another expression for clear or positive proof, beyond any doubt — but only such proof as produces satisfaction beyond reasonable doubt. — Griffith v. The State, 90 Ala. 583; Lowe v. The State, 88 Ala. 8.

¶33. Charge 10 should have been given.' It postulates the acquittal of the defendant upon the exclusion of every reasonable supposition but that of his guilt; and for the reason, that charge 13 - predicates an acquittal ’merely upon the exclusion of “every hypothesis” of guilt, whether reasonable or not, it was properly refused. Horn v. The State, 102 Ala. 145; Baldwin v. The State, 111 Ala. 12.

¶4The vices of the other refused charges are patent.

¶5Reversed, and remanded.

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