Hearsay

• Author: Gordon P. Cleary
• Pages: 357-518

6-1

6. HEARSAY

Hearsay

§600 In General

§610 Assertive Versus Non-Assertive Conduct

§620 Hearsay Versus Non-Hearsay Purpose

§621 Prior Statement by Witness

§622 Former Testimony

§623 Judicial Findings of Fact

§624 Confrontation Clause Issues

§624.1 Crawford Holdings

§624.2 What Are Testimonial Statements?

§624.3 911 Calls

§624.4 Autopsies

§624.5 Laboratory Reports

§624.6 Police Involvement in Psychological and Medical Care

§624.7 Taped Telephone Calls

§624.8 The Dying Declaration Exception

§624.9 Forfeiture By Wrongdoing: Giles v. California



§624.11 Proceedings in Which Crawford Does Not Apply

§624.12 Preserving Crawford Challenges to Evidence

§624.13 The Basic Crawford Analysis

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6-3 HEARSAY §610

§600 In General

The reason behind the hearsay doctrine is a concern about the reliability of certain evidence: In particular, a con-

cern about the reliability of in-court testimony about out-of-court statements whenever the proponent of that testimony

attempts to use those statements as evidence in the case. Under the common law, hearsay was not allowed because the



is subject to cross-examination, any out-of-court statement made by the declarant is unreliable.

Under the federal rules, and under most modern state rules, hearsay has a relatively narrow application. A statement

is hearsay only if:

• it is made by an out-of-court declarant;

• it is intended to be a statement (assertive conduct or oral/written assertion);

 

The following sections will discuss the modern hearsay rule and its exceptions.

§610 Assertive Versus Non-Assertive Conduct

    

pertinent part:



intended it as an assertion.



Under the Rules, a statement is only hearsay if it is intended to be an assertion. That is, it must be:

• a purposely oral assertion;

• a purposely written assertion; or

• purposeful conduct intended as an assertion.



• a natural person;

• who makes the statement.

Elements

The following are the foundational elements to determine whether a statement is hearsay (assertive conduct) or

non-hearsay (non-assertive conduct).

Assertive Conduct

 

— a purposely spoken assertion; or

— a purposely written assertion; or

— purposeful conduct

 



to the hearsay rule which are enumerated and explained later in this chapter.

Non-Assertive Conduct

Out-of-court words spoken by a declarant will not be a statement and, therefore, will not be hearsay, if the fol-

lowing foundation is laid:

 

— unintentionally utter spoken words;