Sapp v. Commonwealth

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• noting that the “use of contempt powers is clearly subject to the discretion of the trial court”
• setting forth the procedure to be followed when a witness claims to be unable to testify due to lack of memory of the relevant events
• ‘The proponent of hearsay testimony of an unavailable witness must demonstrate a ‘sufficient reason’ for not producing the live testimony.”
• “[T]he bona fides of a claim of loss of memory must be tested[] . . . [before] the testimony of a witness may be declared unavailable and prior testimony may be admitted . . . .”
• “Upon . . . demonstrated bona fide lack of memory, the testimony of a witness may be declared unavailable and prior testimony may be admitted, provided that the additional evidentiary foundations [of Rule 2:804(b)(1)], not at issue in this case, are met.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).