The statement must be made within a few seconds or minutes before or after the event in question. The testimony of A regarding B’s statement falls under this category. Within seconds, D collided with an elderly lady, who suffered severe injuries. B told A, “Look, D is really fast and careless”. For example, A and B were chatting, when they saw their neighbor D, moving fast on a skateboard. Present Sense Impressions This exception is about a spontaneous statement that conveys what the declarant is experiencing at the moment that immediately precedes or succeeds a particular event. The testimony may become admissible, if the witness had only ‘heard’ the declarant’s statement. In other words, the declarant (not the witness) must be under some kind of stress while making the statement. Given below are some of the commonly applied exceptions to the rule of hearsay evidence.Įxcited Utterances/Spontaneous Statements Unplanned statements made by a person (declarant) in response to a startling or shocking event falls under this category. The third category consists of exclusions that may fit into the definition of hearsay evidence, but are admitted on special grounds. The second category deals with the exceptions that apply only if the declarant is not available as a witness. The first category deals with those exceptions that apply irrespective of the availability of the declarant as a witness. Exceptions to the Hearsay RuleĮxceptions to hearsay rule are classified into three categories. This amounts to hearsay, as the statement offered into evidence was made by an out-of-the-court declarant, and it is intended to prove the matter of what it asserts (A killed the victim). For example, B’s testimony in the court goes like this: C told me that he saw A kill the victim of the case. If the purpose of the statement is anything other than proving the matter asserted therein, the statement will not be counted as hearsay evidence. So, in order to be classified as a hearsay evidence, the statement of the witness must be assertive (intentional communication of fact) made out of the court by the declarant and is meant for proving the matter asserted therein. 801, “Hearsay is a statement that the declarant does not make while testifying at the current trial or hearing and a party offers that statement in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted in the statement”. The Federal Rules of Evidence (F.R.E.) provides around 30 exceptions to the hearsay rule.
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