Why is it assumed that people on their deathbeds tell the truth?
I think the idea is that now that death is imminent they’re afraid of going to Hell or something along those lines so they want to clear their conscience of all the bad stuff they’ve been holding in.
In addition to that, a couple of other possibilities:
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they have no incentive to lie because they can’t profit from it; and
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they may want to make the world a better place by getting the truth out.
This and no fear of consequences for telling the truth.
The problem is that there’s also no fear of consequences for telling a lie. Dozens of people have made deathbed confessions to famous crimes - in many cases, the same famous crime. Obviously, all of those guys couldn’t be the second gunman who shot JFK.
On his deathbed, my father confessed to my mother that he had fathered–yet another!–child out of wedlock (before they met).
He had lost touch with the baby-mama shortly after the girl was born. He had made efforts over the years to locate them but failed. It took about 15 years after my father’s death to track down my half-sister. We have not yet met in person, but we have spoken over the phone. ETA: her mom told her her dad’s name, but never gave her enough info to locate him.
In a truly Ripley’s-Believe-it-or-Not moment, it turns out that this half-sister and her husband had no idea that for several years, they lived two doors down from the half-sister of another half-sister we share.
It seems to me that if you don’t believe in an afterlife, it would be the perfect time to really stick it to someone with a whopping lie that everyone will assume is the truth. At least, this would be a good device to use in a murder mystery, but mostly in such novels, deathbed confessions are taken to be the truth. Is there actually some legal (as in related to The Law) rules or conventions regarding deathbed confessions?
I recall there was an entire Straight Dope column on this exact subject, only a few years back.
ETA—It might have been a Staff Report, instead of an actual S.D. column by Cecil…
It’s not for confessions, but the legal convention is that a statement made by a dying person, under certain circumstances, won’t be considered hearsay. It has a really narrow application, though. It has to be a statement made by a person who’s about to die, when s/he understands s/he’s about to die, about the cause of or the circumstances of that person’s impending death, and it has to be introduced in a case about that person’s death. If it qualifies, it’s considered “reliable” in the sense that it isn’t unreliable enough to be inadmissible as evidence, but it’s still just one piece of evidence. But that wouldn’t be a confession in most scenarios, since the most obvious situation where it would come up would be a murder trial where the dead person was the victim, in which case who would be on trial?
A person who confesses to something and then dies is a different issue. Not to say that an actual deathbed confession can’t be used as evidence, but the special legal rule for dying words doesn’t apply to that situation.
They could all have been shooters, unaware of the other’s presence, and believe that they are indeed the second gunman. Obviously only Woody Harrelson’s dad is, but they aren’t deliberately telling a falsehood.
Just wanted to clear that up.
Woody Harrelson’s dad shot a federal judge, John Wood, in San Antonio. Never heard any connection to JFK.
He was in Dallas that day, and rounded up with the other usual suspects. There’s no real evidence he was involved, and had he not begat a famous son he would be ignored in the CT world.
Last words are considered to have more credibility because it is presumed that a man will not meet his maker with a lie on his lips. I presume that means that the last words of an athiest is no more credible than any of his other words.
I think you mean Dying Declaration:
“With my last breath, I curse Zoidberg!!!”
Well, yes. I’m not sure what you’re trying to correct me about. There is an extant legal rule about dying words, and it’s that one.
I’d never make a deathbed confession. What if I got better?
Okay.
I’m not trying to correct you. I am linking to a wiki page that more fully explaint the principle you were describing without actually naming.
Yeah, he’s a lower level suspect, in our pantheon. Not bottom feeder, not top of the line. Just one of the 'probably/maybes". A really good look at his involvement/alleged involvement, can be seen on the “Men Who Killed Kennedy” series, with Bill Kurtis/Curtis, from A&E network. It’s really great when he’s shown a picture and described as one of the 3 Tramps. He denied it, looked at the picture, and did a hilarious double-take. Either he is amazed at the stranger who looked like him so particularly, or is surprised that he got busted.
The OP is in Texas, where I grew up. IIRC, Texas law puts the weight of truth on a deathbed confession for reasons mentioned here. Surely there must be some other evidence required, but I distinctly remember this.
Oh, hell, I’ll correct him. With a nitpick, but still.
He said the statements aren’t hearsay. They are.
They are simply admissible as exceptions to the hearsay exclusion rule. See 804(b)(2).