State v. Tolentino

Summary

The court held that Hawaiʻi constitutional protections and HRS § 621-26 require a pretrial evidentiary hearing to determine the voluntariness of any inculpatory statement before the statement is admitted. The trial court improperly relied on the excited-utterance hearsay exception and the prosecution’s representations instead of receiving evidence and making findings on voluntariness. Because the statement was used to convict and the error was not harmless, the court vacated the conviction and ordered a new trial.