C. A declaration by a person who believes that death is imminent, relating to the cause or circumstances of the person's impending death.
Listen
to pronunciation.Legal Definition -
A statement by a person who believes that death is imminent, relating to the cause or circumstances of the person's impeding death. The statement is admissible in evidence as an exception to the Hearsay (click for definition of hearsay) rule.-- Also termed deathbed declaration; ante mortem statement.
Black's Law Dictionary® Eighth Edition © 2004
Recent Usage -
"Warner, a 25-year-old Anguillian was leaving the launch of a basketball league during the early morning hours of 9 April, 2006 when he was shot in the face. He was transported to the Alexander Hospital where he was admitted and treated for his injuries. The man, warded at the Intensive Care Unit, was paralysed from the neck down and after not being able to breathe on his own, was placed on life support. After three weeks he succumbed to his injuries. Walters was represented by Anthony Johnson while Byron was represented by Dr. Henry Browne and Hesketh Benjamin. The prosecution called its first witness in the person of Constable James Jeffers, the investigator attached to the case. In an attempt to prove its case, the prosecution sought to have a statement supposedly made by the deceased admitted into evidence. The defence objected to the admission on the grounds that the statement was “hearsay”. The prosecution then sought to have the statement admitted as a “dying declaration”, a testimony constituting the last words of a dying person. The defence objected once again citing that the criteria needed to deem the statement a dying declaration had not been met in that it did not reveal an expectation of death coming from the victim. No further evidence was offered by the prosecution and having heard and considered both sides of the argument, Justice Ianthea Leigertwood-Octave directed the jury to find the men not guilty." The Sun St Kitts/Nevis April 25, 2007