Short answer. Yes. Under Rule 130, Section 38, the declaration of a dying person, made under the consciousness of an impending death, may be received in any case where that death is the subject of inquiry, as evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of the death — including who inflicted it.
What the law says
The declaration of a dying person, made under the consciousness of an impending death, may be received in any case wherein his or her death is the subject of inquiry, as evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of such death.
Rule 130, Section 38 — Dying declaration. Read the full provision →
Why the law accepts a statement the maker cannot repeat in court
Evidence is ordinarily given by witnesses who take the stand and face cross-examination, and an out-of-court statement offered for its truth is generally excluded. The dying declaration is one of the recognised exceptions, and its logic is grim but simple: the declarant is dead, so the choice is between hearing the statement through the person who received it or losing it entirely. The law resolves that choice in favour of admission, but only under conditions — the section admits the statement as evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of such death, not as proof of anything and everything the dying person said.
The conditions built into the section
Read the text closely and three requirements emerge. The statement must come from a dying person and be made under the consciousness of an impending death — the declarant must have understood that death was coming, which is what substitutes for the oath, on the theory that a person facing death has no motive left to lie. The case must be one wherein his or her death is the subject of inquiry. And the statement is received only as evidence of the cause and surrounding circumstances of that death — which is precisely where a statement identifying the attacker belongs.
What falls outside it
Each limit excludes something. A statement made by someone who did not appreciate that death was imminent does not qualify, however soon death in fact followed. A declaration about matters unconnected to the death — old debts, unrelated grievances — is not within the exception even if made on a deathbed. And the section operates in a case where the declarant's death is itself the subject of inquiry, such as a prosecution for the killing; it is not a general licence to prove other disputes with a dead person's words. Admission is also not the same as belief: the court still weighs the declaration against the rest of the evidence.
If you received such a statement
The person who heard the declaration becomes the vehicle for it, so preserve everything about the moment: the exact words used, when and where they were spoken, who else was present, and — critically — the declarant's condition and any words or signs showing awareness that death was near, since the consciousness of an impending death is the element most often contested. Write it down while memory is fresh and bring it to the investigators and to counsel. Whether the statement ultimately comes in will be fought over these details, not over the tragedy itself.