Opinion ID: 2609334
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Scope of an Admissible Statement Under CRE 804(b)(3)

Text: CRE 804(b)(3) provides for the admission of a statement against the declarant's interest. The People urge us to construe a statement against interest broadly, arguing that the court of appeals' interpretation of an admissible statement is unnecessarily restrictive and results in an artificial dissection of a declarant's narrative. While we do not share the People's view that a declarant's entire narrative should be admissible so long as it contains within it a remark inculpating the declarant, we agree with the People that the court of appeals' interpretation of an admissible statement, based on the Supreme Court's decision in Williamson, is not a correct statement of Colorado law.
In Williamson, the Supreme Court held that a statement for purposes of Fed. R.Evid. 804(b)(3) is limited to an individual self-inculpatory remark. See Williamson, 512 U.S. at 599-601, 114 S.Ct. 2431. The Williamson Court began its analysis by acknowledging that a statement may have a broad meaning, such as a report or narrative, or may mean more narrowly a single declaration or remark. Id. at 599, 114 S.Ct. 2431. The Williamson Court explained that, although the text of the rule does not answer the question of which meaning of statement should be followed, the principle behind the Rule supports the more narrow reading. Id. According to the Court's interpretation of Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3), the rule: does not allow admission of non-self-inculpatory statements, even if they are made within a broader narrative that is generally self-inculpatory. Id. at 600-01, 114 S.Ct. 2431. As a result of Williamson, statements that are collaterally neutral and related to the inculpatory remark are not admissible under the federal rule. In his concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy strongly disagreed with the majority's interpretation of Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3). See Williamson, 512 U.S. at 611-21, 114 S.Ct. 2431 (Kennedy, J., concurring). Justice Kennedy summarized the three generally accepted, competing views regarding the admissibility of a declarant's statements that are collateral, related declarations to the directly inculpatory statement. See id. at 611-12, 114 S.Ct. 2431. Dean Wigmore argued, as do the People here, that every fact contained in the statement should be admitted because `the statement is made under circumstances fairly indicating the declarant's sincerity and accuracy. Id. at 612, 114 S.Ct. 2431 (quoting 5 J. Wigmore, Evidence, § 1465, at 271 (3d ed.1940)). Dean McCormick took a more guarded view than did Dean Wigmore by arguing that collateral statements of a neutral character should be admitted, while collateral statements of a self-serving character should not. See id. (summarizing Dean McCormick's view and citing C. McCormick, Law of Evidence § 256, at 552-53 (1954)). Professor Jefferson, taking the most narrow view of the three, argued that only the proof of the fact against interest should be admitted. See id. (summarizing Professor Jefferson's view and citing Jefferson, Declarations Against Interest: An Exception to the Hearsay Rule, 58 Harv. L.Rev. 1, 62-63 (1944)). Concluding that the majority's view was too narrow, Justice Kennedy advocated an approach similar to Dean McCormick's perspective.
The People and Newton agree that Colorado case law has interpreted CRE 804(b)(3) more broadly than the Supreme Court interpreted Fed.R.Evid. 804(b)(3) in Williamson. [16] For example, the Moore court explained that the declarant's statement was admissible under CRE 804(b)(3) because it would have been probative in a trial against him, which as the People correctly note, is a significantly broader standard than the Williamson approach. It is also indisputable that this court is not bound to follow interpretations of federal rules of evidence that are identical to our rules of evidence. See, e.g., People v. Garner, 806 P.2d 366, 372 (Colo.1991) (declining to follow the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of Fed.R.Evid. 104 under Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681, 108 S.Ct. 1496, 99 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988)). We find for several reasons that a more permissive approach to admitting statements against interest than the one announced by the Williamson Court is consistent with Colorado case law and represents the better evidentiary policy. First, a broader reading of CRE 804(b)(3) comports with the type of statement that was admissible under our common law prior to the adoption of the Colorado Rules of Evidence. Our case law allowed for the admission of a statement against interest that included collaterally neutral facts. See, e.g., Western Auto. Supply Co. v. Washburn, 112 Colo. 430, 433-39, 149 P.2d 804, 805-08 (1944); In re Estate of Granberry, 30 Colo. App. 590, 594-95, 498 P.2d 960, 962-63 (1972). In Washburn, this court considered the admissibility of an employee's written and oral statements describing the details of an accident which allegedly caused the employee to sustain an injury. See Washburn, 112 Colo. at 433-39, 149 P.2d at 805-08. The statements included a series of collaterally neutral remarks about the employee's history with the employer and details of the events underlying the injury. See id. at 433-35, 149 P.2d at 805-06. The statements also contained an acknowledgment that there were no witnesses to the injury, which, as we explained, was against the employee's interest because the type of injury sustained by the employee requir[ed] certainty of proof. Id. at 438, 149 P.2d at 807. Because the statements contained this acknowledgment, we held that the trial court erred by not allowing the employer to admit the broader statements into evidence. [17] See id. at 439, 149 P.2d at 808. Given the state of the common law concerning statements against interest, the question is whether the Colorado Rules of Evidence intended to narrow this hearsay exception. We answer that question in the negative. Adoption of the Colorado Rules of Evidence codified the common law in some respects and changed it in others. As then-Judge Quinn explained in his exhaustive review of the Colorado Rules of Evidence, CRE 803 and CRE 804 generally follow the traditional common law exceptions as progressively broadened over the years. Joseph R. Quinn, Hearsay in Criminal Cases Under the Colorado Rules of Evidence: An Overview, 50 Colo. L.Rev. 277, 312 (1978-79). If CRE 804(b)(3) effected any change in our common law, the rule actually expanded the admissibility of statements against interest by extending it to statements against penal interest. See Quinn, supra, at 335 (explaining that CRE 804(b)(3) made a substantial inroad upon the restrictions imposed by case law for admissibility of declarations against interest by allowing for the admission of statements against penal interest, in addition to statements against pecuniary and proprietary interests); CRE 804(b)(3) advisory committee's note (noting that Colorado's precedent concerning statements against interest is sparse, with possible limitation to statements against declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interests). In its decision limiting the admissibility of a statement against interest to each precise self-inculpatory remark, the court of appeals significantly and erroneously departed from the types of admissible statements against interest that existed under common law, which CRE 804 intended to follow. Second, severing collaterally neutral statements from each precise self-inculpatory remark deprives the jury of important context surrounding that self-inculpatory remark. In our view, this approach places too great an emphasis on the policy against admitting hearsay while undervaluing the need for meaningful evidence in criminal cases. See Juliana Gortner, Note, The Admissibility of Inculpatory Statements in Washington Under the Rule for Declarations Against Interest After Williamson v. United States, 70 Wash. L.Rev. 859, 870 (1995) (criticizing Williamson for fail[ing] to accommodate the critical need for meaningful evidence in criminal cases when sufficient protection can be afforded in a more balanced way). [18] As the court of appeals' attempt to parse Cummins's statement demonstrates, the surgical precision called for by Williamson is highly artificial and nearly impossible to apply. Third, as Justice Kennedy aptly observed, a narrow interpretation of the rule would apply equally to statements offered by a defendant to exculpate the defendant, as well as those that inculpate the defendant. See Williamson, 512 U.S. at 617, 114 S.Ct. 2431 (Thus, if the declarant said, `I robbed the store alone,' only the portion of the statement in which the declarant said `I robbed the store' could be introduced by a criminal defendant on trial for the robbery. That seems extraordinary. (citations omitted)). CRE 804(b)(3) already requires a defendant seeking to admit a statement exculpating the defendant to show that corroborating circumstances clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. The court of appeals' narrow interpretation of the rule would impose an additional hurdle to the admission of such statements, thereby making it more difficult for a defendant to present relevant evidence supporting a theory of non-involvement in the alleged crime. We therefore reject the court of appeals' interpretation of CRE 804(b)(3). We hold that a narrative's precise statement against penal interest and related, collaterally neutral statements are admissible under CRE 804(b)(3). When a party seeks to introduce a statement under CRE 804(b)(3), a trial court should determine whether the statement sought to be introduced contains a fact against the declarant's penal interest. If it does, then the trial court should admit all statements related to the precise statement against penal interest, subject to two limits. Williamson, 512 U.S. at 620, 114 S.Ct. 2431 (Kennedy, J., concurring). First, statements that are so self-serving as to be unreliable should be excluded. Second, if the trial court determines that the declarant had a significant motivation to curry favorable treatment, then the entire narrative is inadmissible.
The admissibility of Cummins's statement to Detective Parker is likely to arise during a retrial. Although further fact-finding and changed circumstances may obviate the need to address this issue, we nevertheless proceed to provide guidance on the admissibility of the statement under our interpretation of CRE 804(b)(3) and the three-part test we announced in part III-A of this opinion. See, e .g., Goebel v. Colorado Dep't of Insts., 764 P.2d 785, 804 (Colo.1988) (offering guidance to the trial court on an issue likely to arise on retrial); People v. Roark, 643 P.2d 756, 766-74 (Colo.1982) (same).