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THEFT. Accessory Subsequent — Possession
Possession Possession of Goods shall be sufficient to convict
of Theft a party not all giving account of his how
he came by them manner of counting by the same to the satisfaction
of the Friars person having cognizance of the
fact provided 1st that proof be made 1st of
such Testimony Evidence positive of their being missing & conjectural of their being stolen that the goods having been in question were missing according to the missed & being according
to the belief of the evidence stolen, knowledge of the evidence & missing stolen according to his belief,
That they were in possession the party whose property they are
alledged to be or of some are those him whose Title he hath
within .... days before they were found in
possession of the Defendant. v. Princ. Pen. Law 255 & 2 Hale 289 - 90.
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This Direction for it is amounts to no more, seems useful
as a remedy to the excessive tenderness of Judges
& Jurors, who who in this age of let their internal persuasion be ever so strong [assured] who in this age of will not scarce even convict but upon positive
ocular testimony of the Fact: it is frowned
upon the spirit of those provisions that are so
frequent in the Laws against specific Thefts
The 2 proviso's are added for the satisfaction
of those persons who notwithstanding the sense
of the Legislature so often expressed might still otherwise
be disposed to think the latitude given too
great without them.
It looks from a passage of Sr M. Hale, that
in his time Juries were not generally so tempestous
The Author of the Principles of Penal Law, if I
understand him right, will not admitt of a conclusive
inference of the guilt from unaccounted possession,
that is, from any thing but ocular evidence
of the fact of taking. "The Felonious intent" says he
"cannot be presumed from the wrongful possession; it"
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"must result from the evidence given, that the
taking was committed anicus furandi."
[It is a difficult matter to deal with Authors
whose manner of writing is so desultory vague & unsteady]
I interpret the word "wrongful" in this confined
sense, instead of because if understood in it's ordinary & more general
sense, it would only amount to this, that every taking
where a man has not Title is not Theft.
which is saying nothing. I could wish the whole passage had been expressed with such precision, as that I could have been a little more certain of not having misrepresented it
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Identifier: | JB/073/043/001"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 73. |
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073 |
law in general |
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043 |
theft accessory, subsequent - possession |
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001 |
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1 |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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23883 |
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