Hollander v. Texas (Original)
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A jury convicted appellant of criminal mischief for tampering with a metering device in order to divert electricity, which he did not pay for, to the house in which he was residing. The Supreme Court reversed appellant's conviction: it was never communicated to the jury that it must believe the evidence substantiating the presumption beyond a reasonable doubt before it could convict the appellant. Certain key facts to support the charges were hotly contested, and the Court rejected both the court of appeals' finding that the great weight of the evidence established the predicate facts and the implicit conclusion that the jury probably would have found those predicate facts to be true beyond a reasonable doubt had it been required to do so. Considering all of these factors, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that the error in the jury charge both affected the very basis of the case and deprived appellant of a fair and impartial trial. Accordingly, the judgment was reversed and the case remanded for a new trial.
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