Hearsay Rule: What Is Conspiracy? Essay Example

defendant have an opportunity to confront and cross-examine the person who made the statement (Anderson & Gardner, 2013, p. 185). In chapter eight, we read about the confrontation clause and the exceptions to the hearsay rule. The confrontation clause is the clause in the U. S. Constitution that entitles a defendant in a criminal case to demand witnesses to testify against him in his presence (Anderson & Gardner, 2013, p. 90). Although the Court had always been careful not to equate the Confrontation Clause with the hearsay rule, the early Confrontation Clause cases looked to the hearsay exceptions as appropriate “indicia of reliability “ for admission in criminal trials of out-of-court statements (Anderson & Gardner, 2013, p. 190).

The indicia of reliability is characteristics of a statement, otherwise inadmissible as hearsay, that courts believe sufficiently established the statement’s reliability so that cross-examination is not required (Anderson & Gardner, 2013, p. 90). The hearsay exceptions most relevant to child abuse cases admitted under the “excited utterance”. The excited utterance exception is to permit parents, friends, and physicians to testify about out-of-court statements made by a child. Many states have statutes that define “unavailable” as including emotional stress placed on a child by giving live testimony (Anderson & Gardner, 2013, p. 211). In conclusion, the hearsay rule has a lot of different parts to in.

When it comes to using it in court, you have to make sure that it’s allowed and if not then, you have to figure out how to defend someone without the hearsay rule. I feel that when it comes to any cases that has something to deal with a child,

that the excited utterance should always be in place because kids don’t understand what has happened to them and sometimes they feel that they are in trouble.

References

1. Anderson, T. M. , & Gardner, T. J. (2013). Criminal Evidence 8th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.