Smith V. Sate Case Study

1. When is hearsay evidence admissible in court?
Answer: The hearsay rule prohibits statements made outside of court to be offered as proof, in admitting evidence. However there are exceptions to the hearsay rule, which includes statements made in 1) excitement utterance, this is defined as statements made while the declarant was under stress of excitement which caused it. 2) Present impression, statements made during or right after the declarant perceived it. 3) There are various records rules; such as public records which are marriage, death, and birth if reported to legal office, observations made while on public duty like how many times an officer has had disciplinary actions against him or her while on duty. Cases filed in courts prior
Sate case. Facebook messages were admitted in court as evidence. In this case the defendant was convicted of capital murder, in the death of his 17 month old step daughter. The messages that were admitted in court was between the defendant and his wife. The defendant argument was that “the messages were not properly authenticated and were hearsay”. However the court ruled against his claims and stated that. Automatically generated messages such as emails cannot be hearsay. There were two types of messages admitted into court; one was an email and the other message was a wall posting from Smith on his wife page, lets breakdown why down the the case so you can understand why the messages were admitted into court. If you have any social media account then you know once someone comments on a picture, likes a picture or send you a messages, then you are automatically notified either the message pops up on your phone or comes into your email, one cannot manipulate something that is automatically generated. Additionally Mississippi rule of evidence 801 allows such messages and allows “messages were admissions by the party-opponent”. Thus the mother’s message could not be