Cite as: 512 U. S. 594 (1994)
Kennedy, J., concurring in judgment
than self-serving"); see generally United States v. York, 933 F. 2d 1343, 1362-1364 (CA7 1991); United States v. Casamento, 887 F. 2d 1141, 1171 (CA2 1989).
Apart from that limit on the admission of collateral, self-serving statements, there is a separate limit applicable to cases in which the declarant made his statement to authorities; this limit applies not only to collateral statements but also to the precise words against penal interest. A declarant may believe that a statement of guilt to authorities is in his interest to some extent, for example as a way to obtain more lenient treatment, or simply to clear his conscience. The Note takes account of that potentiality and states that courts should examine the circumstances of the statement to determine whether the statement was "motivated by a desire to curry favor with the authorities." 28 U. S. C. App., p. 790. That appears consistent with McCormick's recognition that "even though a declaration may be against interest in one respect, if it appears that the declarant had some other motive whether of self-interest or otherwise, which was likely to lead him to misrepresent the facts, the declaration will be excluded." McCormick § 256, p. 553.
Of course, because the declarant is by definition unavailable, see Fed. Rule Evid. 804(a), and therefore cannot be questioned to determine the exact motivation for his statement, courts have been forced to devise categories to determine when this concern is sufficient to justify exclusion of a statement as unreliable. It has been held, for example, that a statement to authorities admitting guilt, made after an explicit promise of dropped charges or of a reduction in prison time in exchange for the admission of guilt, may be so unreliable as to be inadmissible. See, e. g., United States v. Magana-Olvera, 917 F. 2d 401, 407-409 (CA9 1990); United States v. Scopo, 861 F. 2d 339, 348 (CA2 1988) ("If . . . a pleading defendant had an agreement with the government or with the court that he would not be punished for the crimes to which he allocuted, then that allocution would not
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