Aguilar v. State (1994)

In Aguilar v. State, 887 S.W.2d 27 (Tex. Crim. App. 1994), a plurality of the Court concluded that the present opinion of a testifying witness does not constitute hearsay because it is not, and can never be, a statement "other than one made by the declarant while testifying at the trial." The plurality said that "even if the expert relies in whole or in part upon information of which he has no personal knowledge, ... the admissibility of his opinion is not affected 'unless the court determines that he does not have a sufficient basis for his opinion.'" The Court noted that while there are limits to revealing the basis for an expert's opinion to a jury, those limitations do not apply to the expert opinion itself, but only to the "underlying facts and data." The Court decided that the dispositive issue was whether the report itself was ever actually offered or admitted into evidence over the appellant's objection . Ibid.