An out-of-court statement is called hearsay. A declaration of death is a kind of hearsay. Unlike ordinary hearsay, however, a declaration of death is admissible in court. As such, a declaration of death is an exception to the hearsay rule. In medieval English courts, the principle comes from Nemo moriturus praesumitur mentiri — «no one on the side of death should be regarded as a lie». [1] An incident in which a declaration of death was admitted into evidence was found in Case 1202. [2] An oral or written statement made by a person at the time of death about the cause of death. At common law, the declaration of death in a trial for murder or manslaughter of the declarant was permitted as an exception to the hearsay rule if he or she would have been a competent witness had he survived (see jurisdiction). Case law required that the person making the declaration of death had a «fixed and desperate expectation of death.» The applicable law is contained in the Criminal Justice Act 2003. According to the Federal Rules of Evidence,[4] a declaration of death is permitted if the sponsor of the declaration can prove: The first application of the declaration of death in American law dates back to 1770 during the murder trial of the British soldiers responsible for the Boston Massacre. One of the victims, Patrick Carr, told his doctor before he died that the soldiers had been provoked. The doctor`s testimony helped defense attorney John Adams secure acquittals for some of the defendants and reduce the charges for others.
n. the testimony of a mortally wounded person who knows he is going to die, who says who caused the injury and possibly the circumstances («Frankie shot me»). Although hearsay, since the deceased person cannot testify in person, it is permissible in cases of murder, based on the theory that a dying person has no reason not to tell the truth. If the accused is convicted of murder, but the reliability of the declaration of death is questioned, an appeal should be filed. [5] The declaration of death can be used in civil and criminal cases. The report must relate to the circumstances or cause of the impending death of the declarant. For example, in Clifton Chambers` 1988 death statement, he said that ten years earlier he had helped his son bury a man he had accidentally killed. The statement was reason enough to warrant a search warrant on the son`s property, and the man`s body was indeed found. However, there was no physical evidence of a crime, and since Chambers was not the victim, his declaration of death was not admissible as evidence, and the son was never brought to justice. [1] The admissibility of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings was governed by the Criminal Justice Act, 2003, which effectively replaced the common law system and abolished all common law hearsay exceptions (except those obtained under section 118), including the declaration of death exception. An original statement of a deceased person may now be admissible under the statutory exception of «unavailability» (§§ 114 and 116), subject to the discretion of the courts (preserved by Article 126) to exclude unreliable evidence (i.e. that the unfavourable value outweighs the probative value).
Since the nineteenth century, critics have questioned the credibility of dying explanations. In a state court case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court dealt with the issue of a declaration of death. The defense stressed that «this type of evidence is not viewed sympathetically.» [6] The defence argued that several factors could affect the reliability of death declarations: death declarations are admissible as evidence in Indian courts if the dying person is aware of his danger, if he or she has given up hope of recovery, if the death of the dying person is the subject of the charge and the declaration of death, and whether the dying person was capable of a religious sense of responsibility to his Creator. [2] A declaration of death is usually filed by the prosecution, but can also be used on behalf of the accused. State and federal rules of evidence govern the use of death declarations in their respective proceedings. A declaration of death is a statement made by a declarant who cannot testify in court (usually because of the death of the declarant) who made the declaration in the belief of certain or imminent death. The declaration must also state what the notifier believes to be the cause or circumstances of his imminent death. A declaration of death is considered credible and trustworthy evidence, based on the common belief that most people who know they are going to die are not lying. Therefore, it is an exception to the hearsay rule, which prohibits the use of a statement made by someone other than the person repeating it in trial testimony because he or she is inherently untrustworthy.
If the person who declared the death had any hope of recovery, however unreasonable, the testimony is not admissible in evidence. However, a person who files a declaration of death must be legally capable at the time of the declaration or they are inadmissible. Search: `Declaration of death` in Oxford Reference » In the law of evidence, a declaration of death is testimony that would normally be excluded as hearsay, but can still be admitted into evidence in common law criminal proceedings because it represented the last words of a dying person. The reasoning is that someone who dies or believes death is imminent would have less incentive to fabricate testimonies, and as such, hearsay testimony brings with it some reliability. At common law, a «declaration of death» must be a statement made by a deceased person who would otherwise have been a credible witness to his or her own death by murder or manslaughter and who was «an established desperate expectation of death.» [3] Physical or mental weakness resulting from the approach of death, the desire for self-justification or the willingness to attribute responsibility for an injustice to others, and the fact that statements are made in the absence of the accused and often in response to key questions and direct suggestions and without the possibility of cross-examination: all these considerations combine to make such statements dangerous evidence. [7] The purpose of this research paper is to provide a comparative analysis of three common law jurisdictions, namely India, the United States and the United Kingdom, with respect to the admissibility and probative value of declarations of death in the legal system.
