Abolishing the Excited Utterance Exception to the Rule Against Hearsay

Abstract

Seconds after witnessing Rick Blaine shoot and kill a Nazi officer, Captain Louis Renault utters a lie that absolves Blaine of guilt and sends the murder investigation in another direction. And, in Blaine’s trial for the murder of Major Strasser, Captain Renault’s excited utterance that someone other than Blaine was the killer would be admitted—pursuant to the Federal Rules of Evidence—as proof that Blaine did not shoot Major Strasser, regardless whether Captain Renault testified at trial. Renowned Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner recently questioned the efficacy of the excited utterance exception to the rule against hearsay, and called for changes to the manner in which the excited utterance exception and other hearsay exceptions are applied.