Title: State v. Paya

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

ENTRY ORDER

                       SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 91-610

                             OCTOBER TERM, 1992


 State of Vermont                  }          APPEALED FROM:
                                   }
                                   }
      v.                           }          District Court of Vermont,
                                   }          Unit No. 2, Chittenden Circuit
                                   }
 Cynthia Paya                      }
                                   }          DOCKET NO. 343-8-91CnCS


              In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:


      The presumption set forth in 23 V.S.A. { 1205(m) does not violate the
 due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments to the United
 States Constitution because it is rebuttable, rather than irrebuttable, and
 because there is a rational connection between the fact proved and the
 ultimate fact presumed.  State v. Pluta, ___ Vt. ___, ___, 600 A.2d 291, 293
 (1991).

      Defendant's evidence at trial showed only that the presumption was
 theoretically rebuttable, not that it was rebutted in this case, id., or
 that it was irrational.

      Affirmed.




                                    BY THE COURT:


                                    _______________________________________
                                    Frederic W. Allen, Chief Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    Ernest W. Gibson III, Associate Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    John A. Dooley, Associate Justice

                                    _______________________________________
                                    James L. Morse, Associate Justice
 [x]  Publish
                                    _______________________________________
 [ ]  Do Not Publish                Denise R. Johnson, Associate Justice