State of West Virginia, Plaintiff Below, Appellant v. David Wayne Kaufman, Defendant Below, Appellee

Summary

The court reversed Kaufman's first-degree murder conviction and life-without-mercy sentence because the trial court improperly admitted the victim's entire sixty-three-page diary as a single hearsay statement and failed to adequately explain its admission of related statements made to others. The court held that the diary was nontestimonial for Confrontation Clause purposes, but required each declaration or remark to be separately evaluated for hearsay, relevance, admissibility, and unfair prejudice. Chief Justice Workman, concurring, emphasized that the hearsay inquiry must first determine whether each statement is hearsay at all.