An oral or written statement from a person at the time of death on the cause of death. At common law, a declaration of death in a trial for murder or manslaughter of the declarant was admissible as an exception to the hearsay rule, provided that the declarant would have been a competent witness if he had 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. An amicable testimony is called hearsay. A declaration of death is a kind of hearsay. However, unlike ordinary hearsay, a declaration of death is allowed in court. Therefore, a declaration of death is an exception to the hearsay rule. Search: « Declaration of death » in Oxford Reference » Other general rules of admissibility also apply, such as the requirement that the declaration be based on the applicant`s actual knowledge. State and federal rules of evidence govern the use of death declarations in their respective proceedings. « A declaration of death is an exception to the hearsay rule if the declaration was made out of personal knowledge and under the feeling of imminent death. This sense of imminent death can be satisfactorily demonstrated by the applicant`s express language or may be inspired by his obvious danger or the opinions of doctors or other companions conveyed to him, or by his conduct or other circumstances in the case, all of which are used to determine the applicant`s state of mind. « Death statements are generally limited to use in murder prosecutions, but they can also be used by the accused to defend murder charges. As a rule, courts refuse to admit death declarations in civil cases, including for unlawful homicide, or in criminal proceedings for crimes other than the murder of the deceased.

n. the testimony of a mortally wounded person who knows he is going to die and who says who caused the injury and possibly the circumstances (« Frankie shot me »). Although hearsay, since the deceased person cannot testify personally, it is permissible on the theory that a dying person has no reason not to tell the truth. « A death statement is a factual statement by a victim about the cause and circumstances of a homicide. The declaration of death can be used in civil and criminal cases. « A declaration of death is permitted as an exception to the hearsay rule because it has a guarantee of reliability by assuming that belief in imminent death precludes the possibility of an invention by the applicant. The conditions for admitting a death declaration to the evidence are as follows: (1) The statement relates to the circumstance(s) of the homicide, (2) the applicant must believe that death is imminent, and (3) the applicant must have sufficient mental capacity to make an accurate statement about the circumstances of the murder. A declaration of death is a statement by a declarant who is not available to testify in court (usually due to the death of the applicant) who made the statement believing in certain or imminent death. The statement must also refer to what the applicant considered to be the circumstance(s) of the applicant`s imminent death.

A declaration of death is usually submitted by the Crown, but can be used on behalf of the accused. An explanation for dying is considered credible and trustworthy evidence, based on the general belief that most people who know they are going to die are not lying. Therefore, this is an exception to the hearsay rule, which prohibits the use of a statement by a person other than the person who repeats it repeated during a trial because of its inherent unreliability. If the person who made the declaration of death had any hope of a cure, however unreasonable, the statement is not admissible as evidence. However, a person who submits a declaration of death must be competent at the time of making a declaration, otherwise it is inadmissible. The general principle on which this kind of evidence is allowed is that these are statements that are made in the highest way when the party is at the point of death and when all hope in this world has disappeared: when all the motives for lying are silenced and the mind is prompted by the most powerful considerations to: to tell the truth; The situation, so solemn and so terrible, is considered by law as an obligation equivalent to that imposed by a positive oath before a court. « In Illinois, the exception has never been used in civil proceedings. Under no circumstances, with the exception of that of a public prosecutor for serious homicide, may the death declarations of the killed party be received as evidence, and in civil cases they are not admissible. No reported cases in Illinois have applied the exception in a civil case, and we will not be the first to do so here. « A statement from a person who is conscious and knows that death is imminent, in relation to what he considers to be the cause of death or the circumstances of death, which in some cases may be presented as evidence at trial. In Berry v.

American Standard, a witness died after giving some of his testimony during a filmed testimony, but before he could be prosecuted and before the trial. Judge Thomas Welch wrote for the Illinois Court of Appeals when he denied the request to use the video of the deceased witness in court: « In a murder charge or in a civil case, a statement that the plaintiff, while believing that the applicant`s death is imminent, is about his causes or circumstances [admissible as an exception to hearsay]. Statements by a person who believes they will die, in relation to the immediate circumstances of their death and the person responsible for inflicting the injuries that cause the death. These statements qualify as an exception to the hearsay rule in murder trials, in which the murder of the person who made the statements is the crime of charge against the accused. Adelkoff, Sherri K. 1998. « Select `M` for Murder: Analysis of the Admissibility of telephone declaration of death. » Duquesne Law Review 36 (spring): 545–61. The exception is listed in section 804(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Bernstein, Michelle A. 1997. Proof – A modern application of the declaration of death Exception to the hearsay rule. Suffolk University Law Review 30 (Summer): 575-81.