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Evidence Commons

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Common Law

Hearsay

University of Michigan Law School

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Full-Text Articles in Evidence

Face To Face': Rediscovering The Right To Confront Prosecution Witnesses, Richard D. Friedman Jan 2004

Face To Face': Rediscovering The Right To Confront Prosecution Witnesses, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects the right of an accused 'to confront the witnesses against him'. The United States Supreme Court has treated this Confrontation Clause as a broad but rather easily rebuttable rule against using hearsay on behalf of a criminal prosecution; with respect to most hearsay, the exclusionary rule is overcome if the court is persuaded that the statement is sufficiently reliable, and the court can reach that conclusion if the statement fits within a 'firmly rooted' hearsay exception. This article argues that this framework should be abandoned. The clause should not be regarded …


Thoughts From Across The Water On Hearsay And Confrontation, Richard D. Friedman Jan 1998

Thoughts From Across The Water On Hearsay And Confrontation, Richard D. Friedman

Articles

This article draws on the history of the hearsay rule, and on recent decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, to argue that the right to confrontation should be recognised as a basic principle of the law of evidence, and that aspects of the Law Commission's proposals for reform of the hearsay rule, and of the Home Office's proposals for restrictions on the right of cross-examination, are therefore unsatisfactory.


Evidence - Admissibility Of Age In Hospital Record As Business Entry, Craig E. Davids Oct 1944

Evidence - Admissibility Of Age In Hospital Record As Business Entry, Craig E. Davids

Michigan Law Review

Representing his birth date as 1866, deceased purchased from defendant insurance company in 1921 a policy on his life, which provided that in the event of any misrepresentation of age the insured's beneficiary would receive only that amount which a standard policy issued at his true age would stipulate for the premiums paid. In a suit by the beneficiary to recover on the policy, defendant attempted to prove that deceased was born at least as early as 1862. Among other evidence, defendant introduced a hospital record of deceased's visit to a particular institution in 1936 where he represented his age …