Opinion ID: 2627503
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: admissibility of victim's statements

Text: Jones states that his first issue is whether the district court erred in admitting, as a dying declaration, the victim's hearsay statements to the paramedics, suggesting an evidentiary challenge based upon our hearsay statutes. However, his arguments concentrate on the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution as interpreted in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). More specifically, Jones principally argues against applying the exception to his confrontation right referred to as forfeiture by wrongdoing, which was discussed in Crawford and adopted by this court in State v. Meeks, 277 Kan. 609, 88 P.3d 789 (2004). The appellant's imprecision in defining his arguments follows an amalgamated ruling by the district court. Although the parties had only argued the applicability of a hearsay exception under our state statutes, the district court opined that the victim's statements were admissible under Crawford and Meeks, which were cases addressing the Confrontation Clause constitutional question. The district court mentioned that these cases approved the doctrine of forfeiture by wrongdoing. The court also found that the declarant believed that he was dying and that he was excited at the time, suggesting the applicability of the hearsay exceptions in K.S.A. 2007 Supp. 60-460(e) and (d)(2). Further, the court found that the statement was reliable. The State's brief begins by reciting that the standard of review for the admission of a statement under the Kansas hearsay statutes is abuse of discretion. However, it then embarks on a constitutional analysis of whether the victim's statements were testimonial in nature, so as to implicate the Confrontation Clause. The State summarily concludes that the statements were not testimonial, thus disposing of the constitutional question and proceeding to the remaining question of the applicability of a hearsay exception under K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460. However, after arguing that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the statements under the dying declaration hearsay exception of K.S.A.2007 Supp. 60-460(e), the State returns to the constitutional right of confrontation issue to discuss the forfeiture by wrongdoing exception. Accordingly, we take the liberty of arranging the various questions in our own order. First, we will discuss the State evidentiary question and then the federal constitutional implications.