When may a witness's account of what another person said be used as evidence at the trial, under the Criminal Procedure Act provision on statements about statements?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
The practice file should hold the transcript of the hearing at which the witness gave that account, the record or document of the original statement the account reports, and papers showing why the original speaker cannot make a statement, such as a death certificate, a medical record, a record of residence abroad or a police report of the person being untraceable.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading requires every condition together: the witness is someone other than the defendant, speaking at the trial preparation proceeding or the trial day, and what the witness reports is another non-defendant's statement; that account may be evidence only where the original speaker cannot make a statement through death, illness, foreign residence, being untraceable or an equivalent reason, and only where it is proved that the statement was made in a state where it was 'especially credible'.
Another reading turns on what the provision leaves open: 'or a reason equivalent to these' is not defined, and the provision does not state who must prove that the statement was made in an especially credible state or how that is shown, so the file must make the equivalent reason and the credibility of the original statement visible to the court.
Your judgment
If the original speaker cannot make a statement for a reason not listed in the provision, what in the record would show that it is equivalent to those reasons?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We revisit this card if the provision is amended to define what counts as an equivalent reason or to set who must prove the especially credible state, or if a court decision settles either point.