his interest to another.’ “Rule 601, Ala.R.Evid., effective January 1, 1996, states that, ‘Every person is competent to be a witness except as otherwise provided in these rules.’ In the Advisory Committee’s Notes to Rule 601, it is stated: “ ‘This rule supersedes any inconsistent statutory grounds of incompetency. Chief among these is Alabama’s Dead Man’s Statute. Ala.Code 1975, § 12-21-163. Superseding the Dead Man’s Statute means that survivors will be allowed to testify, if their testimony otherwise complies with the rules of evidence, and that the unavailability of the deceased person will be merely a factor for the jury to consider in determining the weight to give the survivor’s testimony. See Beddingfield v. Central Bank of Alabama, N.A., 440 So.2d 1051, 1052 (Ala.1983)(<HOLDING>). In superseding the Dead Man’s Statute,
recognizing that the waiver rule is wholly consistent with the bias rule of practice as an appellate body holding that the title of the statute did not limit the reach of the statute recognizing that the dead mans statute is a survival from an earlier and much broader incompetency statute and characterizing its survival as deplorable recognizing the significant body of scholarly criticism of the dead mans statute holding that prejudice requires that the difference in sentencing be significant