I hear, I say

When a person is called to court as a witness, he is said to be summoned to give evidence. This does not mean that he can say what he likes in court. Generally, he can only give evidence on what he himself has seen or heard and not otherwise. This is known as the hearsay rule. For example, a person who witnessed a theft can give evidence as to the identity of the thief and what he did. If he did not so witness but was only told about the theft by another, he cannot then state in court that "so and so told me that the defendant is the thief". In other words, an out of court statement made by a person other than the person giving evidence is not admissible.

There are exceptions. Suppose A was attacked by B which caused injuries eventually leading to his death.. Before he died, A told C that B was the one who attacked him. C can give this evidence in court if B is prosecuted for murder even if C did not see the actual attack.

Another exception is a confession. A police officer who records or hears the confession can give evidence of it if the person is subsequently charged. However, before this is done, the court must be satisfied that the confession was given voluntarily, that is without inducement, threat or promise. Obviously if the accused person confesses after having been beaten up, his confession will be excluded. Not so obvious examples of extracting an involuntary confession include recording of statements without breaks, statement taking in an extremely cold room or promising that the accused person can see his family after confessing. From experience, I am proud to say that our courts are quite diligent in ensuring that confessions are truly voluntarily before admitting them into evidence. Many criminal cases (including capital cases) simply faltered after confessions by the defendants were thrown out for being involuntary.