State of Tennessee, Petitioner v. Clarence Ray Brown and John Carl Redden, Respondents

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed a split decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals that had overturned the defendants' convictions for concealing a stolen 1964 Chevrolet for insufficiency of the circumstantial evidence. The court held that the Court of Criminal Appeals misapplied Marie v. State: the requirement that circumstances exclude every other reasonable hypothesis of guilt is a rule for the jury at trial, not the standard of appellate review, under which the appealing defendant must show the evidence preponderates against the verdict whether the proof is testimonial or circumstantial. Concluding the defendants failed to carry that burden, the court affirmed the trial judgments. No separate opinions were filed.