RECEIVER OF STOLEN GOODS
(bouvier) | RECEIVER OF STOLEN GOODS, crim. law. By statutory provision the receiver of
stolen goods knowing them to have been stolen may be punished as the
principal in perhaps all the United States.
2. To make this offence complete, the goods received must have been
stolen, and the receiver must know that fact.
3. It is almost always difficult to prove guilty knowledge; and that
must in general be collected from circumstances. If such circumstances are
proved which to a person of common understanding and prudence and situated
as the prisoner was, must have satisfied him that they were stolen, this is
sufficient. For example, the receipt of watches, jewelry, large quantities
of money, bundles of clothes of various kinds, or personal property of any
sort, to a considerable value, from boys or persons destitute of property,
and without any lawful means of acquiring them and specially if bought at
untimely hours, the mind can arrive at no other conclusion than that they
were stolen. This is further confirmed if they have been bought at an
undervalue, concealed, the marks defaced, and falsehood resorted to in
accounting for the possession of them. Alison's Cr. Law, 330; 2 Russ. Cr.
253; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 951; Roscoe, Cr. Ev. h.t.; 1 Wheel. C. C. 202.
4. At common law receiving, stolen goods, knowing them to have been
stolen, is a misdemeanor. 2 Russ. Cr. 253.
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