Opinion ID: 1873849
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Cox asserts that the evidence offered by the State was not sufficient to support the verdict of guilty. The standard of review for challenges to the legal sufficiency of the evidence is provided in Benson v. State, 551 So.2d 188 (Miss. 1989). The Court stated: Recently in McFee v. State, 511 So.2d 130 (Miss. 1987), this Court repeated its standard of review for challenges to the legal sufficiency of the evidence. When on appeal one convicted of a criminal offense challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence, our authority to interfere with the jury's verdict is quite limited. We proceed by considering all of the evidence  not just that supporting the case for the prosecution  in the light most consistent with the verdict. We give the prosecution the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. If the facts and inferences so considered point in favor of the accused with sufficient force that reasonable men could not have found beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty and weight that, having in mind the beyond the reasonable doubt standard, reasonable and fairminded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, the verdict of guilty is thus placed beyond our authority to disturb. See e.g., Gavin v. State, 473 So.2d 952, 956 (Miss. 1985); May v. State, 460 So.2d 778, 781 (Miss. 1984). McFee at 133-134. See also Winters v. State, 449 So.2d 766 (Miss. 1984). Benson, 551 So.2d at 193. Cox' challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence of his arson conviction rests on the argument that Danny Sullivan set the initial fire in the Sullivan home. The testimony of Fire Marshall White and Lt. Strauser shows that Danny Sullivan may have originally started the first fire. However, the two also testified that Cox stated to them that he started one of the fires by taking a burning rag from another fire and throwing it into a closet. Miss. Code Ann. § 97-17-1 (1972) states: Any person who wilfully and maliciously sets fire to or burns or causes to be burned or who aids, counsels or procures the burning of any dwelling house ... It is clear from the evidence that Cox participated as a principal with Danny Sullivan in burning the Sullivan home. The evidence in the record does not support Cox' argument that reasonable persons could find him not guilty of arson beyond a reasonable doubt. Disturbance of this verdict is beyond the authority of this Court.