Also known as: FRE 902 · Fed. R. Evid. 902 · Federal Rule of Evidence 902 · self-authentication rule
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A rule of evidence that identifies categories of documents and records that are self-authenticating and therefore admissible without extrinsic evidence of authenticity.
Rising Sun Electronics offers its customer transaction logs in a contract dispute. The company supplies a written declaration from its records manager stating that the logs were kept in the ordinary course of business. The declaration meets the requirements for certification under the rule, so the logs come in without calling the manager to the stand.
Roberto Reyes offers a photocopy of an FCC sanction order bearing an embossed agency seal and a stamp stating it is a certified true copy. The seal and stamp together satisfy the rule's criteria for self-authentication, allowing admission without testimony from an agency custodian.
In 2001 Boston police officers received a tip that a Kmart employee was engaging in suspicious activity involving repeated short trips in a blue sedan. Officers set up surveillance in the parking lot, observed the described sequence of events, detained the employee upon his return, and discovered four clear plastic bags containing a substance resembling cocaine. The officers then arrested the two men in the car, one of whom was petitioner Luis Melendez-Diaz. The officers placed all three suspects in a police cruiser. During the short drive to the police station the officers observed their passengers fidgeting and making furtive movements in the back of the car. After depositing the men at the station they searched the police cruiser and found a plastic bag containing nineteen smaller bags hidden in the partition between the front and back seats. The officers submitted the seized substances to the State Laboratory Institute of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, which was required by law to conduct chemical analysis upon police request. Analysts at the laboratory performed the tests on November 28, 2001, and prepared three certificates of analysis that reported the weight of the bags and stated that the substance was found to contain cocaine. Each certificate was sworn before a notary public by the analysts, as required under Massachusetts law, and reprinted the statutory provision making the certificates prima facie evidence of the composition, quality, and net weight of the narcotic analyzed. Melendez-Diaz was charged with distributing cocaine and trafficking in cocaine in an amount between 14 and 28 grams. At trial the prosecution introduced the bags seized from the codefendant and from the cruiser along with the three certificates. Petitioner objected to admission of the certificates, asserting that Crawford v. Washington required the analysts to testify in person. The trial court overruled the objection and admitted the certificates pursuant to the state statute. The jury found Melendez-Diaz guilty. He appealed, contending that admission of the certificates violated his Sixth Amendment right to be confronted with the witnesses against him. The Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed the convictions, relying on a prior decision of the Supreme Judicial Court that had held forensic analysts are not subject to confrontation. The Supreme Judicial Court denied review, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
View caseThe document must bear a seal purporting to be that of the United States, a state, or a political subdivision or agency, along with a signature purporting to be an execution or attestation. The seal alone triggers self-authentication when these elements appear on the face of the document.
Yes. A copy certified as correct by the custodian or by a certificate complying with the rule qualifies as self-authenticating. The proponent need not produce the original or call the custodian when the certification requirements are met.
A business record may be authenticated by a certification that complies with Rule 902(11) or (12) instead of live custodian testimony. The opponent may still challenge trustworthiness under the hearsay exception, but the certification satisfies the authentication requirement.
Yes. A document accompanied by a lawfully executed certificate of acknowledgment from a notary public is self-authenticating. The notarial certificate itself supplies the required assurance of authenticity without additional foundational testimony.
…Evid. 902(4) (in order to be self-authenticating, a copy of a public record must be "certified as correct by the custodian"); Rule 902(11) (business record must be "accompanied by a written declaration of its custodian"). Under one possible reading of the Court's opinion, recordkeepers will be required to testify. So far,…