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39 S.D. 365

State v. Korth

South Dakota Supreme Court

Decided August 30, 1917

South Dakota Supreme Court · decided 1917-08-30

<p>Arson — Circumstantial Evidence Connecting Appellant, Sufficiency.</p> <p>In a prosecution for wilfully "burning a barn with intent to defraud the insurer, held, that the evidence, which was. mostly circumstantial, and such.in nature that conclusion of guilt does not logically or naturally' follow therefrom, and was uncertain upon vital issue of connecting defendant with commission of the offense changed, is insufficient to produce abiding conviction of guilt.</p> <p>Smith, J., concurring specially.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Judgment reversed, and causes remanded for new trial · Decided 1917-08-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently September 1978

10 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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McCOY, J„

¶1Decision affirming the judgment of the lower court appears in 162 N. W. 144. Upon rehearing.we are of the opinion that a new trial should be granted. One of the questions raised by the assignments of error was that the evidence was insufficient to connect the appellant with the commission of the offense charged. The evidence was mostly circumstantial, and was of such a nature that the conclusion of guilt does not logically or naturally follow therefrom. While we are of the view that there was no positive or clear error shown to- have been committed on the trial, still we are of the opinion that the circumstantial evidence adduced on the trial upon the vital issue of connecting the defendant with the commission of the offense charged was uncertain, weak, and unsatisfactory to such an extent that it should not be held sufficient to produce an abiding conviction of guilt, beyond all reasonable doubt, of such a serious offense.

¶2The judgment appealed from is reversed, and the cause remanded for new trial.

SMITH, J. I adhere to my dissent in the former decision in this case, but concur in the view that a new trial should be granted.
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