Hearsay in United States law
The Federal Rules define a "statement" as "a person’s oral assertion, written assertion, or nonverbal conduct, if the person intended it as an assertion". (F.R.E. 801(a)). The Supreme Court has further clarified that a "statement" refers to "a single declaration or remark, rather than a report or narrative". Thus, a trial court must separately analyze each individual statement, "sentence-by-sentence", rather than analyzing the narrative as whole for hearsay content or exceptions.
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