State v. Hailes

CHARLES E. MOYLAN, JR. (Retired, Specially Assigned), J.

This State appeal from an adverse suppression ruling in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County presents us with a bounteous smorgasbord of evidentiary and constitutional issues. Among them are 1) the Dying Declaration as the “granddaddy” of the firmly-rooted exceptions to the Rule Against Hearsay; 2) the impact, if any, of the Confrontation Clause on the Dying Declaration pursuant to the recent reinterpretation of that clause in Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004); and 3) the suppressability…