157 So. 2d 445 - Pacetti v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently June 1994
10 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Relies on 90 So. 2d 629 - Davis v. State · 71 So. 2d 899 - Mayo v. State · Lee v. State · Victor v. State · Frank v. State
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““ * * * [ W] e merely note that the many decisions of the courts of Florida are to the general effect that such evidence must be of a conclusive nature and tendency; and it must be consistent with guilt and inconsistent with innocence, leading on the whole to a reasonable and moral certainty that the accused and no one else committed the offense charged. “While it has been said many times that absolute metaphysical and demonstrative certainty is not essential to sufficient proof by circumstances in a prosecution for a crime, it has also been said that: “ ‘Evidence which furnishes nothing stronger than a suspicion, even though it would tend to justify the suspicion that the defendant committed the crime, it [sic] is not sufficient to sustain conviction. It is the actual exclusion of the hypothesis of innocence which clothes circumstantial evidence with the force of proof sufficient to convict. Circumstantial evidence which leaves uncertain several hypothesis, any one of which may be sound and some of which may be entirely consistent with innocence, is not adequate to sustain a verdict of guilt. Even though the circumstantial evidence is sufficient to suggest a probability of guilt, it is not thereby adequate to support a conviction if it is likewise consistent with a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. * * * >»”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. RS v. State · Knowles v. State““ ‘Evidence which furnishes nothing stronger than a suspicion, even though it would tend to justify the suspicion that the defendant committed the-crime, it [sic] is not sufficient to.sustain conviction. It is the actual exclusion of the hypothesis of innocence-which clothes circumstantial evidence with the force of proof sufficient to-convict. Circumstantial evidence-which leaves uncertain several hypotheses, any one of zvhich may be-sound and some of zvhich may be entirely consistent zvith innocence, is not adequate to sustain a verdict of guilt. Even though the circumstantial evidence is sufficient to suggest a probability of guilt, it is not thereby adequate to support a conviction if it is. likewise consistent with a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. * * * ’”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.