State of Arizona v. Richard Lee Palmer

¶ 14 The verdict in this ease turned on whether the jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that a certain backpack containing methamphetamine, located in an emergency room bay, belonged to the defendant. To secure that verdict, the state elicited the express assertion of a nameless female declarant that the backpack was Palmer’s.4 Because the state did not call the declarant as a witness, because the sincerity and accuracy of her assertion could therefore not be tested by oath and cross-examination, and because the assertion was offered directly for the proposition that the backpack…