Opinion ID: 359686
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Instruction on Circumstantial Evidence.

Text: 74 The Greenes argue that it was plain error for the trial court to have failed to instruct the jury that to support a conviction on circumstantial evidence, the evidence must be inconsistent with every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. We cannot agree. Circumstantial evidence is intrinsically as probative as direct evidence. Holland v. United States, supra, 348 U.S. at 139-140, 75 S.Ct. 127; United States v. Scholle, 553 F.2d 1109, 1118 (8th Cir. 1977), Cert. denied, 434 U.S. 940, 98 S.Ct. 432, 54 L.Ed.2d 300 (1978). Since the Supreme Court's opinion in Holland, this Circuit has held that instructions that circumstantial evidence alone affords a basis for conviction only if the evidence is completely inconsistent with innocence are now considered confusing and incorrect and the better rule is merely to instruct on the standards of reasonable doubt. United States v. Fryer, 419 F.2d 1346, 1350 (8th Cir.), Cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1055, 90 S.Ct. 1399, 25 L.Ed.2d 672 (1970). 75