Opinion ID: 1794090
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Trustworthiness of the Statement

Text: Beyond the requirement that a statement must be against penal interest, MRE 804(b)(3) further requires that exculpatory statements must be trustworthy. We note that the rule does not require that the statements themselves be clearly corroborated. United States v. Garcia, 986 F.2d 1135, 1141 (C.A.7, 1993). We make a further preliminary observation that federal courts are split over whether the court must assess the credibility of the witness, [10] or of the declarant, or of only the statement. [11] We believe that the credibility of the declarant inherently affects the trustworthiness of the statement, and therefore it is not inappropriate for a court to exclude a statement where the declarant's veracity is seriously doubtful or entirely lacking. United States v. Moore, 936 F.2d 1508, 1517 (C.A.7, 1991); United States v. MacDonald, 688 F.2d 224, 233 (C.A.4, 1982); Satterfield, 572 F.2d at 692. Therefore, we are faced with two remaining questions respecting the corroborating circumstances requirement: (1) what facts may a judge properly consider, and (2) what level of corroboration is necessary?