Court Opinion

ID: 9781793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 17:32:09.82129+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:39.537646
License: Public Domain

Justice KIDWELL,
concurring in result.
While I concur in the result, I do not agree with the analysis of Part II.B in which the majority concludes that the lab report was inadmissible. The majority asserts that the effect of the exclusion from the public records hearsay exception for “investigative reports by police and other law enforcement personnel, except when offered by an accused in a criminal case” under I.R.E. 803(8) would be rendered meaningless if the reports were otherwise admissible under the exception for records of a regularly conducted activity found in I.R.E. 803(6). I respectfully disagree. Depending on the circumstances, a lab report may be admissible under both hearsay exceptions, admissible under one of the hearsay exceptions, but not the other, or inadmissible under either exception. Thus, admitting evidence that may not be admissible under the exception for records of a regularly conducted activity does not thwart the exclusion from the public records exception. Instead, it acknowledges that the rules *915of evidence may overlap and what may be admissible under one rule, might be excluded if offered into evidence under another. This being the case, I nonetheless believe that the majority reached the correct result in affirming the judgment of the district court.