What is the test for making a dying declaration?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Snell, B256698 (Cal. App. 2016):

language of the declarant, or be inspired from his evident danger, or the opinions of medical or other attendants stated to him, or from his conduct, or other circumstances in the case, all of which are resorted to in order to ascertain the state of the declarant's mind.' " (People v. Tahl (1967) 65 Cal.2d 719, 725 (Tahl).) It is not required that the declarant "expressed in words the belief that he was about to die." (People v. Vukojevich (1914) 25 Cal.App. 459, 462.) Rather, a statement is admissible as a dying declaration where the evidence shows that it was made under the knowing "sanction" of immediately impending death, " 'whether it be directly proved by the express language of the declarant, or be inferred from his evident danger, . . . or from his conduct, or other circumstances . . . ,' " all of which may be considered in " 'ascertain[ing] the state of the declarant's mind.' " (Id. at pp. 462-463.)

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