The dying declaration of Silvester; the legal implications.
A dying declaration is a statement made by a person who is unavailable to testify in court typically because of the declarant’s death, who made the statement under a belief of certain or impending death. It is the last statement; oral or written made by a person in his or her dying bed before he dies.
Whatever a person says in his or her dying bed which is referred to as a dying declaration is presumed to be true and regarded as a credible piece of evidence. Therefore, the purported statement made by Junior in his dying bed about being beaten, harassed and bullied by his colleagues and them forcing him to drink poisonous chemicals which eventually led to his death will be presumed to be true and credible.
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The statement will be held to be credible piece evidence useful for the prosecution’s case and useful to the court while passing their judgements in this case.
This evidence (dying declaration) is held to be so strong at law that it requires no corroboration to lead to conviction. So, the dying declaration of Silvester that he was beaten and poisoned by his colleagues needs not be corroborated by any other piece of evidence for there to be conviction as the conviction of the accused can be based on the dying declaration alone.