In United States law, a statement against penal interest is a statement that puts the statement-maker at risk of prosecution. It is the criminal equivalent of a statement against interest, a statement a person would not normally make, which would put them in a disadvantaged position to that they would have had if they had not made the statement in the first place.
In certain circumstances, it can be a factor in allowing as evidence statements that would otherwise be excluded through the law of hearsay.
Famous quotes containing the words statement, penal and/or interest:
“A sentence is made up of words, a statement is made in words.... Statements are made, words or sentences are used.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)
“Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th’ Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th’ Omnipotent to Arms.
Nine times the Space that measures Day and Night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquisht, rowling in the fiery Gulfe”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)