In a breach of contract lawsuit, the plaintiff offers a handwritten letter as evidence. The plaintiff claims the letter, which details secret terms of the agreement, was written by the defendant's now-deceased CEO. The letter's contents refer to specific, confidential details of the negotiation that, according to the plaintiff, only the CEO would have known. The plaintiff argues the letter should be authenticated based on these contents alone. How should the court rule on the authentication of the letter?
Exclude the letter, because handwritten documents from a deceased person can only be authenticated by expert handwriting analysis.
Exclude the letter, because authentication requires extrinsic evidence linking the document's contents and their distinctive characteristics to the purported author.
Admit the letter, because a statement from a deceased person that is against their interest is a hearsay exception and therefore self-authenticating.
Admit the letter, because its contents contain distinctive details that only the purported author would have known, which is sufficient for authentication.
The correct answer is that the letter cannot be authenticated solely by its contents. Under Federal Rule of Evidence 901(b)(4), a document can be authenticated by its distinctive characteristics, such as its contents, but this must be "taken together with all the circumstances." The proponent of the evidence must present some extrinsic evidence to connect the contents to the alleged author. For example, testimony would be needed to establish that the details in the letter were, in fact, confidential and known only to the CEO. The contents themselves, in a vacuum, are insufficient. Other methods of authentication, such as testimony from a witness with knowledge of the CEO's handwriting or comparison by an expert, could also be used.
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