Decedent’s Diary Entries Were Inadmissible Hearsay

Prosecutors should not have been allowed to rebut a homicide defendant’s claim of self-defense with statements in the decedent’s diary expressing her fear of him, the New Mexico Supreme Court held Oct. 22. (State v. Lebya, N.M., No. 32,541)

On appeal, the government argued, among other things, that the diary entries were covered by the hearsay exception for a statement of a then-existing mental, emotional, or physical condition. The state rule, like Fed. R. Evid. 803(3), allows the admission of “a statement of the declarant’s then-existing state of mind (such as motive, intent, or plan) or emotional, sensory, ...