State v. Guinn

I respectfully dissent. Without overtly overruling law proclaimed by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Missouri, which established an exception to the hearsay rule as a constitutional right, the majority opinion serves to emasculate that right by declining to apply precedential mandates to the facts at bar.

In Chambers v. Mississippi 410 U.S. 284, 93 S.Ct. 1038, 35 L.Ed.2d 297 (1973), *549the U.S. Supreme Court created a narrow exception to the general rule of excluding hearsay testimony against penal interest where three indicators of reliability of that evidence are established.…