Deathbed Or Dying Declarations - Law Dictionary Search Results

Deathbed or Dying Declarations

Deathbed or Dying Declarations are constantly admitted in evidence. The principle of this exception to the general rule is founded partly on the awful situation of the dying person, which is considered to be as powerful over his conscience as the obligation of an oath, and partly on a supposed absence of interest in a person on the verge of the next world, which dispenses with the necessity of cross-examination. But before such declarations can be admitted in evidence against a prisoner, it must be satisfactorily proved that the deceased, at the time of making them, was conscious of his danger, and had given up all hope or recovery [R. v. Perry, (1909) 2 KB 697], and this may be collected from the nature and circumstances of the case, although the declarant did not express such an apprehension. It is not essential that the party should apprehend immediate dissolution; it is sufficient if he apprehend it to be impending. See Taylor on Evid., 12th Edn., ss. 714 et seq. The (English) Crim...