Court Opinion

ID: 9460841
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:01:35.620519+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:48.259028
License: Public Domain

ROSS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I do not disagree with the majority’s discussion of the declaration against penal interest exception to the hearsay rule. It properly notes the general *959trend toward applying that exception and correctly indicates that the Supreme Court in Chambers v. Mississippi, 410 U.S. 284, 293-302, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), and the House of Representatives in its version of the proposed Federal Rules of Evidence, H. R. 5463, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 36-37 (1974), have taken a cautious approach to adopting the penal interest exception. Both have required that for the exception to apply there must be corroborating circumstances indicating clearly that the proffered hearsay testimony is trustworthy. The majority finds that such circumstances are present here. I cannot agree.
Three witnesses offered to testify to the effect that Major Bogan has told them that he — not defendant Goodlow— was responsible for the crime. These three witnesses were: (1) Goodlow himself; (2) Goodlow’s wife; and (3) Eugene King, a personal friend of Good-low. These are not three independent individuals who have no personal interest in the outcome of the case. Rather, their testimony regarding Bogan’s out-of-court declarations would seem to be particularly suspect due to their natural concern that the defendant be acquitted.1
The proffered testimony also revealed that Bogan had allegedly made his declaration to Mrs. Goodlow when no one else was present, and he allegedly made his statement to Goodlow with only King present and to King with only Goodlow present. While the statements to Good-low and King were supposedly made in a pool hall, neither of them could say who else might have overheard them, although Goodlow stated that other persons had done so. The result of all this is that the only witnesses to Bogan’s alleged declarations against penal interest were three individuals with a strong interest in the outcome of the case. This hardly gives an “aura of trustworthiness” to this testimony, especially when Bogan was unavailable for cross-examination.
The trial judge, in ruling that the hearsay testimony was inadmissible, specifically found “that the contributing circumstances do not clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statements of Bo-gan. On the contrary, they indicate otherwise.” During the voir dire examination of the witnesses on this point the judge had the opportunity to observe them and their demeanor and was thus in a better position to make a determination on trustworthiness than we are.
If we are to apply the exception to the hearsay rule for declarations against penal interest, we should require more evidence of reliability than the bare testimony of the defendant, his family and friends. In the instant case the profferred hearsay evidence smacks of a concocted story to place blame on the conveniently missing Major Bogan. The indicia of trustworthiness which were present in Chambers are missing here.2
I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.

. While it does not bear directly on the question of. admissibility, it is noteworthy that the jury herein did not find Goodlow, his wife and King convincing witnesses either. All three testified to the jury to the effect that Goodlow had a complete alibi, in that he was accompanying King and several others on a trip to Columbia, Missouri, at the time the crime occurred in St. Louis.

. In Chambers the declarant was present in the court and was, therefore, available for cross-examination. The declarant had signed a sworn confession, and there was corroborating testimony from an eyewitness to the crime (a shooting). There was also testimony that the declarant had been seen with a gun immediately after the shooting. Additionally, the declarant had given independent confessions numerous times. These many indicia of trustworthiness found in Chambers clearly distinguish that case from the one before us.