"circumstantial proof" is a correct and commonly used phrase in written English.
It refers to evidence or information that indirectly supports a conclusion or fact, rather than directly proving it. Example: The prosecution presented a strong case with both hard evidence, such as DNA samples, and circumstantial proof, such as the defendant's suspicious behavior on the night of the crime.
His sentence raised eyebrows in Ohio, where prosecutors took another look at his residency and found "circumstantial evidence" but no proof that he had committed crimes.
"It is sort of a criminal court procedure, where you have proof by circumstantial evidence," said Dr. Reinhard Stock, a physicist at the University of Frankfurt who is the spokesman for a collaboration centered on a detector called NA49.
Nearly four months after the bombing of the United States destroyer Cole in Aden harbor, early breakthroughs in the inquiry into the attack appear to have petered out, leaving American investigators with only circumstantial evidence, but no proof, of who was ultimately responsible for ordering the attack that killed 17 American sailors, and exactly how it was planned and carried out.
Alternatively, Microsoft argues that because the software industry is uniquely dynamic, direct proof, rather than circumstantial evidence, more appropriately indicates whether it possesses monopoly power.
The shift of the investigation is based not on definitive proof but on circumstantial information drawn from cases diagnosed in recent days, like the postmarks on the letters known to contain anthrax.
This is hardly proof, but as circumstantial evidence for the power of mitochondria, it is wonderful.
(In an article published in this magazine at the time, Broadbent told a reporter that he found "no proof" but plenty of circumstantial evidence — "masses of it" — that Jefferson had owned the bottle).
But first they will spend several hours listening to the judge's instructions, which will include definitions of the 18 counts in the indictment and other legal distinctions, like circumstantial evidence, direct evidence, expert witnesses and proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
This study collected the circumstantial ecological and direct laboratory feeding trial proofs that T. oblongus can be an important biological control agent against the leafhopper pest P. alienus.
