Joseph McKenna, Hawes v. Georgia — Opinion of the Court
“ On the contrary, it may be presumed that one on such a farm or one who occupies it will know what there is upon it. It is not arbitrary for the state to act upon the presumption and erect it into evidence of knowledge; not peremptory, of course, but subject to explanation, and affording the means of explanation. Hawes had such means. ”
Joseph McKenna, Hawes v. Georgia — Opinion of the Court
“ It has been decided, as counsel concede, that the Legislature may make one fact prima facie evidence of another, and it is certainly within the established power of a state to prescribe the evidence which is to be received in the courts of its own government. ”
Joseph McKenna, Hawes v. Georgia — Opinion of the Court
“ The trial court instructed the jury that Hawes was charged with knowing who had the apparatus upon the premises of which he was in possession or who operated it, and that under the act the burden was upon him to show the want of knowledge, and, further, that all that the state had to show was that the apparatus was on the premises, and, 'when the state shows that, stopping there, that makes out a prima facie case against defendant, and you should find the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment,' unless he show that it, the apparatus, was there without his consent and knowledge. ”
