California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. McKinney, G052069 (Cal. App. 2016):
By definition, "substantial evidence" requires evidence and not mere speculation. In any given case, one "may speculate about any number of scenarios that may have occurred . . . . A reasonable inference, however, may not be based on suspicion alone, or on imagination, speculation, supposition, surmise, conjecture, or guess work. . . . A finding of fact must be an inference drawn from evidence rather than . . . a mere speculation as to probabilities without evidence." People v. Morris (1988) 46 Cal.3d 1, 21, italics in original, paragraph sign and internal quotation marks omitted.)
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