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:
“Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this confession is an essential ingredient of truth.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“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)
“I am pleased to think of Channing as an inhabitant of the gray town. Seven cities contended for Homer dead. Tell him to remain at least long enough to establish Concord’s right and interest in him.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)