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Exited Utterances and Rape

By Smith Law Offices,

"Excited utterances" are usually hotly contested exceptions to the normal hearsay rules.  What follows is a noncomprehensive survey of recent Maine excited utterance cases in the context of sex crime cases. State v. Watts, 2007 ME 153 (upholding conviction)The State acknowledges that the victim?s statement, ?Watts just rapedme,? repeated by her sister on the witness stand, was hearsay. It argues that thestatement was nonetheless admissible as substantive evidence against Wattsbecause it qualified as an excited utterance, which is an exception to the hearsay rule. [¶5] A court may admit a hearsay statement as an excited utterance if itfinds that: (1) a startling event occurred; (2) the hearsay statement related to thestartling event; and (3) the hearsay statement was made while the declarant wasunder the stress of excitement caused by that event...continue to full post

Full post as published by SexCrimeDefender on February 29, 2008 (boomark / email).