 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Lotches12/29/2000
ing would have had any tendency to affect the jury's assessment of the credibility of the witnesses who testified for the state in its case-in-chief. Moreover, the trial court gave defendant an opportunity to establish relevance by showing that the state's mental health experts had relied on those doctors' conclusions in forming their own opinions, but defendant never established that necessary link. The trial court did not err in limiting Jurdem's testimony.
In this court, defendant makes a supplementary, constitutional argument, asserting that evidence of bias always is relevant and that the trial court's exclusion of the evidence violated his rights under the compulsory process and the confrontation clauses of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Defendant did not raise those constitutional arguments before or during trial, nor is any error of law of that kind apparent on the face of the record. We decline to consider the constitutional objections for the first time on review. ORAP 5.45(2);see also State v. Langley, 314 Or 247, 253, 839 P2d 692 (1992) (declining to consider constitutional arguments not raised in trial court).
We further hold that the trial court did not err in excluding the letters to Jurdem regarding an alleged pattern of institutional bias in the Colorado State Hospital. Those letters were offered to prove the truth of their contents. The authors were not called to testify and the state had no ability to cross-examine them. Accordingly, the letters properly were excluded as hearsay under OEC 801(3).Moreover, the letters did not address defendant's particular circumstances and, therefore, were not sufficiently connected to the circumstances of the defendant to be relevant.
D. Admission of Decedent Hall's Last Words
Defendant contends that the trial court erred in admitting statements made by the murder victim, Hall, after he had been shot. Calderon, who had witnessed the gunfight, testified that she ran to Hall after he had been shot and that, before dying, Hall had said, "I don't want to die. * * * I love my kids. I love my family, and I really love my wife. I don't want to die." Defense counsel objected to that testimony on hearsay grounds, to which the prosecution responded that the statement was a dying declaration admissible under OEC 804(3)(b).The trial court overruled the objection.
Later, defense counsel clarified his objection, claiming that the statement did not meet the dying declaration exception to the hearsay rule, because Hall's statements did not concern the causes or circumstances of his impending death. Both the trial court and the prosecutor then asserted that the statement met the hearsay exception for an "excited utterance" under OEC 803(2).The prosecutor also contended that the statement was not hearsay because it was not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. OEC 801(3). Rather, the prosecutor argued, the statement tended to establish Hall's state of mind and thereby rebut defendant's assertion that Hall was the aggressor in the gunfight. The trial court overruled defendant's objection a second time, without specifically stating the basis for its ruling.
In this court, defendant repeats his contention that the trial court erred in admitting Hall's dying statement because it was not within any recognized exception to the hearsay rule. The statement, however, was not hearsay as defined in OEC 801(3). The statement was made outside of court, but the "matter asserted" in the statement, Hall's feelings about not wanting to die, and his love for his family, was not at issue in the case. As the prosecutor contended before the trial court, the statement was offered for a purpos
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Oregon DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|