Jimmy Wayne Edwards v. State of Mississippi

The question in this case is whether proof of delivery of a check made payable to two parties and endorsed by each of those parties, without more, is sufficient, in the context of a criminal prosecution for food stamp fraud, to establish that one of the parties received any given portion of the face amount of the check. The question becomes outcome-determinative in that proof of the amount in fact received by defendant is an essential element of the offense. Because substantial guesswork, speculation and conjecture must necessarily infect any answer to the question, we hold that such facts may not be sufficient to undergird a conviction predicated thereon.