# State v. Derouchie

> Supreme Court of Vermont · November 19, 1981 · 140 Vt. 437

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9749471

## Case

- **Full name:** State of Vermont v. Stephen Michael Derouchie
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Vermont
- **Decided:** November 19, 1981
- **Citations:** 140 Vt. 437; 440 A.2d 146; 1981 Vt. LEXIS 637
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Billings
- **Judges:** Barney, Billings, Hill, Underwood, Peck
- **Cited by:** 59 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9749471

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- rejecting “exclusion of every reasonable hypothesis of innocence” test and holding “whether the evidence is direct, circumstantial, or a combination of both,” prosecution satisfies its burden of proof if evidence, when viewed in light most favorable to State, is persuasive of …
- explaining that Vermont would “now join” the jurisdictions that have abandoned the “reasonable hypothesis of innocence” standard

## Opinion text

*446 Billings, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur in the majority opinion as to the proper burden of proof that the State must bear in circumstantial evidence cases and agree that the measure of proof is beyond reasonable doubt in both direct and circumstantial evidence cases (Part II of the majority opinion).
I must, however, dissent from the result reached by the majority. In my opinion on the record here the State as a matter of law failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the operation of the motor vehicle by the defendant. Because this is an essential element in a charge of operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, I would reverse the defendant’s conviction and enter a judgment of acquittal.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9749471. Public record. Not legal advice.