Court Opinion

ID: 9535835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:45:15.233983+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:21.609251
License: Public Domain

HARRIS, J.
(concurring).
The trial court’s ruling was right because the testimony defendant objected to fell outside the definition of hearsay. It is not hearsay unless an out-of-court assertion is offered to prove the truth of that assertion. State v. Horn, 282 N.W.2d 717, 724 (Iowa 1979). The statements here were not. They were offered, not to prove their truth or accuracy, but to show their effect- — actually their lack of it — upon the hearer when he made the composite picture. The assertions strike me as the same as those in State v. Williams, 256 N.W.2d 207, 208 (Iowa 1977), and State v. Rush, 242, N.W.2d 313, 319 (Iowa 1976), which we held were not hearsay. See also McCormick on Evidence (2nd ed.) § 248 at 587 and § 249 at 589-90; § 801(d)(1) Fed.R.Evid. I would affirm the trial court on that basis.