California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Clark, 203 Cal.Rptr.3d 407, 372 P.3d 811, 63 Cal.4th 522 (Cal. 2016):
the appellate court that must be convinced of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. [Citation.] [Citation.] Where the circumstances reasonably justify the trier of fact's findings, a reviewing court's conclusion the circumstances might also reasonably be reconciled with a contrary finding does not warrant the judgment's reversal. (People v. Zamudio (2008) 43 Cal.4th 327, 357358, 75 Cal.Rptr.3d 289, 181 P.3d 105.)
We affirmed another death penalty case, People v. Lopez (2013) 56 Cal.4th 1028, 157 Cal.Rptr.3d 570, 301 P.3d 1177 (Lopez ), which was also predominantly based on circumstantial evidence and which has similar facts. To the extent that a review of Lopez casts light on issues involved in the sufficiency of evidence in cases based primarily on circumstantial evidence, we discuss it below. The determination of the sufficiency of the evidence is case specific and does not depend on intercase review.
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