Court Opinion

ID: 9849895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:49:03.247573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:28.146791
License: Public Domain

Justice WEBB
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority although I believe the testimony by Otis Lewis as to what Subrina Osborne told him before she died was inadmissible hearsay testimony. It is true, as the majority says, that N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 803(3) allows, as an exception to the hearsay rule, testimony as to what an extrajudicial declarant says in order to prove the declarant’s state of mind. The state of mind of the declarant must be relevant to some issue in the case, however, to be admissible. State v. Meekins, 326 N.C. 689, 392 S.E.2d 346 (1990). I do not believe Subrina Osborne’s state of mind was relevant to the matters that had to be proved to convict the defendant.
The evidence against the defendant was so strong that I do not believe what I perceive to be error in the admission of testimony demonstrates there is a reasonable possibility that had the error not been made there would have been a different result. I would hold that this was harmless error. N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443 (1988).