June 27, 2012

STATE VS. THOMAS NEVIUS A-5438-07T4


STATE  VS. THOMAS NEVIUS
 A-5438-07T4

At issue is the admissibility under N.J.R.E. 803(c)(25) (declarations against interest) of an out-of-court statement by a defendant's non-testifying confederate that supposedly implicated the declarant in a felony murder and exculpated defendant by naming another as the co-perpetrator of the crime.

 We upheld the trial court's exclusion of the statement, finding no abuse of discretion in the evidentiary ruling or due process violation.  We concluded that the so-called inculpatory portion was actually self-serving and unreliable as it tended to dilute or excuse the declarant's criminal culpability by placing the blame on another.  But even if considered self- incriminating, the so-called exculpatory portion of the statement neither strengthened nor bolstered the inculpatory effect of the declarant's allow it to be admissible. 06-18-12

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