Could someone please explain to me how hearsay works? I’m following the Depp/Heard trial, and I’m so confused when one of them gets objected to for explaining something THEY said. I get that you can’t say what someone else told you because you didn’t see or experience it firsthand, but why can’t witnesses share what they themselves said? If you believe someone’s testimony, you’re taking them at their word for everything else that they say happened, so why not what they said, too?
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Just wait until you hear about deathbed confessions! You’ve learned that hearsay is very complex and can be difficult to understand. A statement ruled as a deathbed confession can actually “bypass” hearsay rules and be considered a sworn statement in certain circumstances.
The law is kinda cool, and the fact that there are legal rules around what is accepted as Truth is fascinating to me.
“In the law of evidence, a dying declaration is testimony that would normally be barred as hearsay but may in common law nonetheless be admitted as evidence in criminal law trials because it constituted the last words of a dying person. The rationale is that someone who is dying or believes death to be imminent would have less incentive to fabricate testimony, and as such, the hearsay statement carries with it some reliability.”
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