When may a written statement made outside the courtroom be put in as evidence over the accused's own account at the hearing?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we check the statement itself for the writer's handwriting, signature or seal, the transcript or minute of the hearing showing the author's testimony confirming it, and any record of the circumstances in which a statement recording the accused's words was taken.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the main sentence on its own terms: a statement, or a document recording a statement, made by the accused or by someone else, in that person's own hand or signed or sealed, including information of that kind stored on a disc or similar medium, can be evidence if its authenticity is proved by the author or declarant testifying at the preparatory hearing or the trial.
Another reading turns on the proviso, which is stricter: where the document records the accused's own statement, it may be used only if the author's testimony proves its authenticity and the statement was made 'in an especially credible state', and only then does it stand despite the accused's statement at the preparatory hearing or trial.
Your judgment
What in the record could show that a statement recording the accused's words was taken in an especially credible state?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change how a statement recording the accused's words may be proved, or if a court decision explains what an especially credible state requires.