[DOWNLOAD] "United States v. Cain" by Fifth Circuit United States Court Of Appeals # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: United States v. Cain
- Author : Fifth Circuit United States Court Of Appeals
- Release Date : January 11, 1980
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 51 KB
Description
Having been convicted a second time of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle, the accused, Cain, contends that the trial court erroneously admitted an exhibit purporting to be an escape report made at the Federal Correctional Institution at Texarkana, Texas, recording his escape from that institution on the date the vehicle was reported stolen in Oklahoma. We conclude that the report was improperly admitted, its admission was not harmless and we, therefore, remand for yet another trial. The report qualified as a record made in the course of a regularly conducted activity and it would not ordinarily have been excluded as hearsay because it would be admissible under the exception to the hearsay rule codified in Rule 803(6) of the Federal Rules of Evidence.1 The exceptions to the hearsay rule set forth in Rules 803 and 804 are not affirmative rules of admissibility; they are couched in cautious negation of inadmissibility. The operative phrase of each is, The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule . . . . Fed.R.Evid. 803, 804(b). The reason for this circumspection, as discussed in United States v. Oates, 560 F.2d 45 (2d Cir. 1977), is that the rules of evidence apply to both civil and criminal proceedings and an affirmative statement that such hearsay is admissible might deny a defendant the right to confront the witnesses against him, in violation of the sixth amendment.