Key legal question
Whether the cantonal court's assessment of the evidence and finding that the defendant drove the car was arbitrary and violated the presumption of innocence.
Extracted holding
The court held that the challenged reasoning was not arbitrary; the evidence, taken as a whole, did not leave serious and unavoidable doubt about the defendant's guilt.
Extracted reasoning
The federal court deferred to the trial court's broad discretion in weighing evidence. The police observations, the vehicle's position, the defendant's conduct, and the witness evidence formed a coherent basis for the finding that he had driven the car himself; the defense version was found implausible but not on an obviously untenable basis.