Objection


The courtroom drama was nonsense.....there was no way the statement of the Grandmother would not be hearsay.....the declaration against interest hearsay exception used was total bullcrap....it has to be a declaration against the declarers interest.....in this case the declarer is Grandmother....she is not a part of this trial, is estranged from her son, and may not even like him anymore and may blame him for her daughters death....the defense objections should definitely have been sustained...and allowing it in probably guarantees a mistrial on appeal.

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You are right on the money, I had the same problems.

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There was a lot of bogus stuff there. In the middle of questioning the defense attorney starts making a big speech to the jury?

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So hearsay can be allowed if the declarer is falling on his or her sword?

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Short answer..yes, if the hearsay is legally or financially against the interest of the speaker who said it… it can be allowed under the reasoning that it is highly likely to be true…because otherwise they wouldn’t have said it.

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This is the exact wording of the exception. Testimony that would otherwise be hearsay can be allowed in if

“ a reasonable person in the declarant’s position would have made it only if the person believed it to be true because, when made, it was so contrary to the declarant’s proprietary or pecuniary interest or had so great a tendency to invalidate the declarant’s claim against someone else or to expose the declarant to civil or criminal liability.”

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