Court Opinion

ID: 9641272
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:27:30.869124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:36.337900
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Justice, concurring. As the majority opinion indicates, in past criminal cases we have approved instructions telling the jury that when the State relies upon circumstantial evidence only, its proof must exclude every reasonable hypothesis except that of the defendant’s guilt. The Attorney General now suggests that we should change that rule, in harmony with the doctrine approved in Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121 (1954), and hold that the usual instruction upon reasonable doubt covers the ground and makes the special circumstantial evidence instruction unnecessary. The suggestion may very well have merit; compare our treatment of the unavoidable accident instruction in civil cases. Houston v. Adams, 239 Ark. 346, 389 S.W. 2d 872 (1965). We need not explore the question here, since the judgment is being affirmed, but I think it appropriate to mention in this concurring opinion the possibility that our rule may be re-examined in some proper case in the future.