Can What You Say on Message Board be Held Against in Court?

[ENugent]

*Originally posted by douglips *
For example, if my diary says something like “I have three nipples” I thought that the DA could say “People’s A, your honor, the defendent’s nipples are clearly three in number, he said so himself in this here diary.” I would have though that would be admissible.

From what you are saying now, it sounds like that would be inadmissible, and you’d have to get me on the stand and ask me directly how many nipples I have.

That’s correct, but one of the big exceptions to the hearsay rule is that you can “impeach” the statements of a witness on the stand. So if you testify to having two nipples, I can then pull out the diary and go through the routine of “Is this your diary? Would you turn to page 5? Is that your handwriting? Would you read it aloud, please?”

However, if I were to say “Sometimes Rudy pisses me off so much I want to kill him” in my diary, that would be admissible because it demonstrates I have a state of mind inclined to be pissed off/murderous towards this person? Is that admissible just on its own or does it have to be in the context of testimony? For example, do you have to have Sgt. Murgatroid on the stand and ask “Did you find anything in the defendant’s dresser?” and “Would you read from this diary you found, People’s A, the highlighted text?”

Yeah, I think you could get that in as indicative of mental state. You need to prove what the diary is somehow, which is where you go through the routine with Sgt. Murgatroyd.

IANAL (but I’m almost halfway!)

[Bricker]

*Originally posted by douglips *
**I thought you could still introduce the statement if there was documentary evidence of it, independent of a witness. That is, if you don’t have someone on the stand testifying as to the contents of my speech, but instead had a record of my speech, that would be good enough.

For example, if my diary says something like “I have three nipples” I thought that the DA could say “People’s A, your honor, the defendent’s nipples are clearly three in number, he said so himself in this here diary.” I would have though that would be admissible.

Maybe. In what you quote above, it does sound like you’re introducing the diary’s statement, “I have three nipples,” for the truth of the statement – that is, to prove that the writer has three nipples. In that case, it’s hearsay, and inadmissible unless it falls into some recognized exception thereto.

If you were introducing it to prove that you thought you had three nipples, or that someone else read the diary and formed the opinion that you had three nipples – then it isn’t hearsay.

However, if I were to say “Sometimes Rudy pisses me off so much I want to kill him” in my diary, that would be admissible because it demonstrates I have a state of mind inclined to be pissed off/murderous towards this person? Is that admissible just on its own or does it have to be in the context of testimony? For example, do you have to have Sgt. Murgatroid on the stand and ask “Did you find anything in the defendant’s dresser?” and “Would you read from this diary you found, People’s A, the highlighted text?”

That might be an admission - a statement against your interest - and admissible under the “statement against interest” exception to the hearsay rule. I’m not sure you can trot out state of mind, and claim you’re not offering it for the truth, since the truth of the statement is your state of mind. In other words, you are offering it for the truth of the matter asserted – that Rudy pisses you off, and that you sometimes want to kill him.

Keep in mind that there are a host of perplexing exceptions to the hearsay rule, of which we’ve only mentioned a few. Some depend on the declarant, the original speaker, being unavailable to testify, some are admissible even if the declarant is available, and some are available, as ENugent points out, only to rebut prior inconsistent statements by the witness.

• Rick

[Northern_Piper]

One other point to consider is that in some cases, a statement is itself the act complained of, not a hearsay statement. Two good examples are libel (in the civil law) and uttering threats (in the criminal law).

If I post something on this board impugning, say, Bricker’s professional abilities (which I would not do, as I have great respect for his knowledge of the law), that statement is itself the act complained of. He could sue me for libel based on the statement. It is not like making a statement about the act complained of, like talking about the bank job I did last night. (Again, I rush to assure you that this is a wild hypothetical.) So, in my jurisdiction, the statement underlying a libel action is not considered hearsay.

Similarly, if I post statements threatening someone, those statements are themselves the act of uttering threats. My jurisdiction does not consider them hearsay, but rather the crime itself.

[Finagle]

Here you go:

Doctor wins libel case over anonymous post on message board.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20001209_1529.html

[handy]

It’s not so much it can/cannot be used against one in court or not as much as if it could be.

If it could be, then the board owners wouldn’t want to deal with it, so they have a right to make rules that would protect themselves from having to deal with it at all.

If one user says they are going to beat the crap out of another user here & they do the next day, Im sure that would be a useful message in court for premeditation.