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GRIFFIN v. UNITED STATES Opinion of the Court
in the absence of anything in the record to show the contrary, the presumption of law is that the court awarded sentence on the good count only.” Claassen v. United States, 142 U. S. 140, 146 (1891) (quoting Peake v. Oldham, 1 Cowper 275, 276, 98 Eng. Rep. 1083 (K. B. 1775)) (other citations omitted). See also Snyder v. United States, 112 U. S. 216, 217 (1884); Clifton v. United States, 4 How. 242, 250 (1846); 1 J. Bishop, Criminal Procedure § 1015, p. 631 (2d ed. 1872). This common-law rule applied in a variety of contexts. It validated general verdicts returned on multicount indictments where some of the counts were legally defective (“bad”), see, e. g., Clifton, supra, at 250; State v. Shelledy, 8 Iowa 477, 511 (1859); State v. Burke, 38 Me. 574, 575–576 (1854); Commonwealth v. Holmes, 17 Mass. 336, 337 (1821), and general verdicts returned on multicount indictments where some of the counts were unsupported by the evidence, see, e. g., State v. Long, 52 N. C. 24, 26 (1859); State v. Bugbee, 22 Vt. 32, 35 (1849); 1 Bishop, supra, § 1014, p. 630. It also applied to the analogous situation at issue here: a general jury verdict under a single count charging the commission of an offense by two or more means. For example, in reviewing a count charging defendants with composing, printing, and publishing a libel, Lord Ellenborough stated: “It is enough to prove publication. If an indictment charges that the defendant did and caused to be done a particular act, it is enough to prove either. The distinction runs through the whole criminal law, and it is invariably enough to prove so much of the indictment as shows that the defendant has committed a substantive crime therein specified.” King v. Hunt, 2 Camp. 583, 584–585, 170 Eng. Rep. 1260 (N. P. 1811).
