A New Jersey Hearsay Exception in New Jersey? Not Yet

For centuries the law has prohibited a witness from testifying about the declarations or statements of someone else. Over the years, certain exceptions to the so-called "hearsay rule" have been created.

A week or two ago, New Jersey’s Supreme Court deferred on an opportunity to create yet another exception. In the case of State v. Byrd, the court was asked to determine whether a prior statement given by a witness to investigators in a murder case could be used as evidence, where the witness refused to testify at trial because of death threats made by the defendants . Although the court refused to create this new exception, it seriously urged the legislators to amend New Jersey’s Rules of Evidence to accommodate such an exception.