Directions: Read the following hypothetical situation. Upon completion, please identify all points at which hearsay is present, also listing any possible exceptions that may apply.
Facts: John has been arrested for attempted murder. His accuser, Lisa, claims that John tried to poison her by putting arsenic in her coffee. The following witnesses are being asked to testify at trial:
Karl works at a hardware store and recalls John’s buying a box of arsenic. As Karl wrote out the receipt, John said, we’ve got a real pest I’ve got to get rid of.
Tina is John’s sister. She claims that John’s friend, Mike, admitted that he poisoned the coffee. However, Mike apparently drank out of the wrong cup and wound up poisoning himself. Mike slowly sank into a coma and died before he could testify.
Fred is being asked to testify that he saw John putting a substance into a cup that Lisa was drinking from.
Stella is John’s former girlfriend. She claims that John told her, I’m gonna get even with Lisa one of these days.
Hal was an inmate in the same jail cell as John. Hal claims that John told him, I didn’t do anything wrong.
Ralph wants to testify that he heard Lisa state, I’m going to make sure John spends the rest of his life in jail by poisoning myself.
Ruby is going to recount at a worker’s compensation hearing the substance of a conversation that she had with Lisa in which Lisa admitted that she was not really too emotionally upset to work, as she had previously claimed.
