The raison d’etre for the principle of dying declaration as stated by Eyre C.B in the old English case of R. vs. WOODLUCK (1789) I leach 500 @ 502 is as follows: “The general principle on which this species of evidence is admitted is that they are declarations made in extremity, when the party is at the point of death and when every hope of this world is gone, when every motive to falsehood is silenced and the mind is induced by the most powerful considerations to speak the truth; a situation so solemn so awful, is considered by the laws as creating an obligation equal to that which is imposed by a positive oath administered in a Court of Justice”.
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