Vanessa was walking down street and suddenly fell to the ground after being stabbed by Darryl. Walter was walking down the same street, heard Vanessa scream and turned around and saw Darryl running away. Vanessa tells Walter that Darryl stabbed her. Under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule, Vanessa's statement to Walter would be admissible despite the fact that the statement itself is hearsay since it is a statement that concerns a startling event and Vanessa, the declarant, made the statement while still under the stress of the startling event.
Excited utterance
Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, an excited utterance is defined as a statement that concerns a startling event, made by the declarant when the declarant is still under stress from the startling event. An excited utterance is admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule.
Definition from Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary
An exception to the hearsay rule that finds an out-of-court statement to be inherently reliable if it is made about a startling event while the person making the statement is experiencing that event.
Definition provided by Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary.
August 19, 2010, 5:15 pm
