Dying declaration: Encyclopedia II - Dying declaration - In the United States

Dying declaration - In the United States

Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, a dying declaration is admissible if:

1. it constituted the last words of a person who was dying, and
2. that person was aware that he or she was dying, and
3. that person made a statement, based on their actual knowledge, that relates in some way to the cause or circumstances of his or her death.

For example, suppose Rachel stabs Joey and then runs away, and a police office happens upon Joey as he lays in the gutter, bleeding to death. If Joey manages to sputter out with his last words, "I'm dying - Rachel stabbed me" (or even just "Rachel did it"), the officer can testify to that in court.

The declarant does not actually have to die for the statement to be admissible, but they need to have had a genuine belief that they were going to die, and they must be unavailable to testify in court. In the above scenario, if Joey were to recover instead of dying, and were able to testify in court, the officer would no longer be able to testify to the statement. It would then constitute hearsay, and not fall into the exception. Furthermore, the statement must relate to the circumstances or the cause of the declarant's own death. If Joey's last words are "Rachel killed Monica", that statement will not fall within the exception, and will be inadmissible (unless Rachel killed Joey and Monica in the same act).

Furthermore, as with all testimony, the dying declaration will be inadmissible unless it is based on the declarants actual knowledge. Suppose, for example, Joey bought a cup of coffee at the airport, and was stricken with food poisoning. If his dying last words were that "the people who sold them the coffee mix must have used a defective packing machine", that statement would be inadmissible despite the hearsay exception because Joey had no way of knowing anything about the conditions in which the coffee was packed.

In U.S. federal courts, the dying declaration exception is limited to civil cases and homicide prosecutions. It can not be used in any other kind of criminal proceeding. Although many U.S. States copy the Federal Rules of Evidence in their statutes, some permit the admission of dying declarations in all cases.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "In the United States", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki