Shepard v. United States

Charles Shepard (defendant) was an army doctor who was married to Zenana Shepard. Charles had an affair with Grace Brandon. Charles told Grace he wanted to marry her, but Zenana refused to grant a divorce. Charles obtained mercury, a poison. He gave Zenana some bootleg whiskey to drink, and she became seriously ill. Charles told people that Zenana must have reacted to impurities in the whiskey. Two days later, Zenana told a nurse, Clara Brown, “Dr. Shepard has poisoned me.” At the time Zenana spoke, she had improved significantly from her initial illness and was expected to recover. After making the accusation, Zenana expressed hope for recovery to her doctor. However, Zenana’s condition worsened, and she died a few weeks later. An autopsy showed mercury in Zenana’s system. After Zenana’s death, Charles proposed to Brandon. Federal prosecutors charged Charles with murdering Zenana. At trial, Charles claimed that the mercury in Zenana’s body came from medicine another doctor administered during her illness and that Zenana was suicidal and might have taken her own life. The prosecutor called nurse Brown, who told jurors about Zenana’s accusation that Charles had poisoned her. This statement was offered for its truth, to show that Charles had poisoned Zenana, and the defense objected that it was inadmissible hearsay. The district court found that the statement was Zenana’s dying declaration and allowed Brown’s testimony. The jury convicted Charles. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed the conviction, ruling that Zenana’s statement was not a dying declaration but that it was admissible under the state-of-mind exception to the hearsay rule in order to rebut the claim Zenana was suicidal. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.