Oklahoma § 12-2804 - Hearsay exception - Declarant unavailable

§ 12-2804. Hearsay exception - Declarant unavailable

A. "Unavailability as a witness", as used in this section,

includes the situation in which the declarant:

1. Is exempt by ruling of the court on the ground of privilege

from testifying concerning the subject matter or of the declarant's

statement;

2. Persists in refusing to testify concerning the subject

matter of the declarant's statement despite an order of the court to

do so;

3. Testifies to a lack of memory of the subject matter of the

declarant's statement;

4. Is unable to be present or to testify at the hearing because

of death or then existing physical or mental illness or infirmity;

or

5. Is absent from the hearing and the proponent of the

declarant's statement has been unable to procure the declarant's

attendance or, in the case of a hearsay exception under paragraphs

2, 3 or 4 of subsection B of this section, the declarant's

attendance or testimony, by process or other reasonable means.

A declarant is not unavailable as a witness if the declarant's

exemption, refusal, claim of lack of memory, inability or absence is

due to an act by the proponent of the declarant's statement for the

purpose of preventing the witness from attending or testifying.

B. The following are not excluded by the hearsay rule if the

declarant is unavailable as a witness:

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 12. Civil Procedure

1. Testimony given as a witness at another hearing of the same

or another proceeding, or in a deposition taken in compliance with

law in the course of the same or another proceeding, if the party

against whom the testimony is now offered or, in a civil action or

proceeding, a predecessor in interest had an opportunity and similar

motive to develop the testimony by direct, cross or redirect

examination;

2. In a prosecution for homicide or in a civil action or

proceeding, a statement made by a declarant while believing that the

declarant's death was imminent, concerning the cause or

circumstances of what the declarant believed to be the declarant's

impending death;

3. A statement which was at the time of its making contrary to

the declarant's pecuniary or proprietary interest, or which tended

to subject the declarant to civil or criminal liability, or to

render invalid a claim by the declarant against another, and which a

reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made

unless the declarant believed it to be true. A statement tending to

expose the declarant to criminal liability and offered to exculpate

the accused is not admissible unless corroborating circumstances

clearly indicate the trustworthiness of the statement. A statement

or confession offered against the accused in a criminal case, made

by a codefendant or other individual implicating both the

codefendant or other individual and the accused, is not within this

exception;

4. A statement concerning the declarant's own birth, adoption,

marriage, divorce, legitimacy, ancestry, relationship to another

person or other similar fact of personal or family history, even

though declarant had no means of acquiring personal knowledge of the

matter stated; or statement concerning the foregoing matters or

death of another person, if the declarant was related to that person

by blood, adoption or marriage or was so intimately associated with

the person's family as to be likely to have accurate information

concerning the matter declared; and

5. A statement offered against a party that wrongfully caused

or acquiesced in wrongfully causing the declarant's unavailability

as a witness, and did so intending that result.

Added by Laws 1978, c. 285, § 804, eff. Oct. 1, 1978. Amended by

Laws 2002, c. 468, § 60, eff. Nov. 1, 2002; Laws 2014, c. 106, § 1,

eff. Nov. 1, 2014.