How many of your men went to prison on hearsay evidence? Everyone that I kept talking too said that hearsay was legal in alabama. I knew it was let in the court room, but I thought it was legal. Well, my soon-to-be mother-in-law, has a lot of legal books, and has ben studying them nonstop since Jason went in. One of the books said that hearsay was not legal in alabama and that it's not supposed to be allowed in the court rooms. So my mother inlaw started making phone calls and found out that it's not supposed to be allowed in the court room, and that if a person is sent to prison on hearsay, then they can be entitled to a new trial!! So now we have to pay lots of more moeny that we don't have, to hire a lawyer that does this type of work! Jason went to jail solely on hearsay. So this will hopefully help. If any of your men went to jail or prison on hearsay, you should look into as well!!

JASONGIRL...i can feel your pain..most often heresay is allowed during sex crimes only. Alabama is known for such behavior.

Has anyone suggested that you guys file rule 32, which is done to get a new trail because of new evidence found. I'm no legal expert at all, but 19years ago Kenny tried to get it but found out that he waited to long, so i am thinking theres a time frame on it....

Hearsay is a complicated subject; my 4-unit Evidence course spent about 1/2 our in-class time on hearsay, and my Trial Ad course wasn't much better! Things that might normally be hearsay can be "non-hearsay" if it's, say, an "admission by a party opponent." Further, things that are hearsay can still be admitted if it fits into a 'hearsay exception,' like, if a statement was an excited utterance, a present sense impression, etc., etc. I don't know the first thing about Alabama specifically, but most states' evidence rules mirror the Federal Rules of Evidence pretty closely...

You may have something to go on -- don't let me discourage you! If you have a question, talk to a lawyer; many will give an initial consultation for free, call around.

Good luck!

My husband was convicted to 20 years based solely on hearsay, there was not one shred of evidence in his case. It wasn't a sex crime, either.
Justice doesn't rule the penal system here: politics do.

To the best of my knowledge most Judge's do not allow heresay because a case decided on heresay is easily appealed. If your boyfriend plead, however, based on the threat from cops that they had signed statements, or heresay evidence, I'm not sure but I think there is a 30 day time limit on an appeal to a plea.

Not sure if this helps... Hope it all works out...