Admissible As Hearsay Essay

The offence of murder occurs when a person of a sound mind unlawfully kills a human being, under the Queen’s peace with intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. The issues in this scenario are as follows; whether what Albert heard is admissible as hearsay, whether John’s inconsistent statements are admissible .and whether the death statements of Jane and Patrick are admissible

The first issue is whether what Albert heard is admissible as hearsay. In order for Albert’s experience to be admissible in court, he will have to give a statement as a witness to the police.

Assuming that Albert is a competent witness as set out by section 53 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (YJCEA 1999) and did not fall in the exceptions set out in section 53(3) and (4), then he would be compelled to give evidence in court. Therefore, Albert’s statement would be that he heard a woman scream ‘Don’t do it to me, John; put that knife down!’. This statement however, would be classified as a hearsay statement and would be subject to the hearsay rule.

Hearsay can be defined as a ‘statement not made in oral evidence in the proceedings that is evidence

However, such evidence will be admissible where the death of the deceased is the subject of the charge. Additionally, there should be no hope of recovery when the declaration was made. Given that Patrick was dying of cancer, this already shows that there is absolutely no hope of recovery and it is unlikely that he would be lying about murdering Jane. But the fact that he confessed a month after the murder is problematic. Nevertheless, R v Bernadotti states that death does not have to occur immediately; time is irrelevant. Hence, based on this, his confession will remain