Court Opinion

ID: 9935959
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:57:05.583609+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:56.443994
License: Public Domain

I agree that without testimony identifying the voices on the tape or testimony establishing that enhancement of the tape did not alter its content, the recordings here were inadmissible.
I concur in the result only, however, because I do not believe the seven-pronged predicate outlined inVoudrie is the proper standard for judging the admissibility of the evidence. Molina v. State, 533 So.2d 701 (Ala.Cr.App. 1988),cert. denied, 489 U.S. 1086, 109 S.Ct. 1547, 103 L.Ed.2d 851
(1989), observed that the Voudrie test has been rejected by the weight of authority as a standard for admitting video or sound recordings. "[T]he seven-pronged test is now usually considered obsolete, even for sound recordings . . . and 'has been abandoned in the better reasoned cases in favor of a rule holding that sound tapes like photographs are admissible when a witness testifies they are reliable representations of the subject sound.' " Molina, 533 So.2d at 712 (quoting C. Scott,Photographic Evidence § 1297 at 97 n. 42.5 (2d ed. 1969)).