Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1886 — The Stitz Case Reversed. [ARTICLE]

The Stitz Case Reversed.

The State Supreme Court last Thursday, reversed the ease of George Stitz, convicted last| March of arsoiij in the. burning of his butcher shop and several other buildings in Remington, and sent it back for a new trial. The fol--1 owing is the decision in the t case, andered by Judge Elliott: (1.) A claim made by defendant for the property destroyed, id evidence that the value placed . y defendant upon liis property as too great, was admissable as . nding to show a motive to commit the crime; but not to impeach iae character of the witness. Motive is but a circumstance, and it is always proper to explain the act which is adduced as evidence of a wicked motive, so an instruction that if overvaluation of property was the result of an error of judgment, or of a mistake fact, it was not necessarily evidence of a wicked motive or criminal intent, was proper. (2.) There can be no conviction of a crime unless all the jurors are satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the guilt of the accused, and an instruction informing the jury that such reasonable doubt, unless entertained by all the jurors, does not wan ant an acquittal, is error sufficient to reverse, unless the evidence satisfactorily §howß guilt.