[trussell]

Here's something from a "Rule 502," which I think is from Utah Rules of Evidence: "The non-communicating spouse to whom the confidential communication was made is presumed to be authorized, during the life of the communicating spouse, to claim the privilege on behalf of the person who made the confidential communication."

Could you translate that into terms I can understand? I am not by any means "uneducated", but that comment has me stumped!

[Devil_Anse]

Angela's the "non-communicating spouse." So Rick's the "communicating spouse." Angela is presumed to be authorized, during the LIFE of Rick, to legally say, "I claim marital privilege on behalf of Rick. So, you can't make me tell you anything, Grand Jury." She could have gone into the grand jury and gotten away with not answering their questions, saying the answers would be coming from husband Rick's confidential secrets he told her. But now that he's dead, I think she would have to tell the things he told her.

This marital privilege stuff is designed to help keep spouses and their marriages from being "torn asunder" by courts. It's supposed to bolster their marriage by giving them an excuse to not tell on each other. IOW, it's a pro-marriage law. But once one of the people in the marriage is dead, there is no more marriage to protect--so I think at that point, Angela couldn't refuse to answer court questions by invoking marital privilege.