Opinion ID: 1335595
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: testimony of police officer/victim's statement to the police

Text: Defendant argues that Victim's statement to police officers constituted inadmissible hearsay evidence. We disagree. Defendant further claims that even if the statement was not inadmissible hearsay that it violated the Confrontation Clause of the federal Constitution. We disagree.
The trial court found that Victim's statements to the police immediately following the attack were allowable under either Rule 803(1), SCRE, as a present sense impression or Rule 803(2), SCRE, as an excited utterance. We agree that the statement qualifies as an excited utterance. The hearsay exceptions of present sense impression and excited utterance have replaced the res gestae hearsay exception in South Carolina law. [6] In the current case, Victim's statement to the police immediately after the attack qualifies under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay prohibition. The rationale for the [excited utterance] exception lies in the special reliability accorded to a statement uttered in spontaneous excitement which suspends the declarant's powers of reflection and fabrication. Blackburn, at 327, 247 S.E.2d at 336. In Blackburn, this Court found that to qualify as part of the res gestae, the [excited] utterance need only be `substantially contemporaneous' with the transaction. Id., at 328, 247 S.E.2d at 336. In an analysis of the excited utterance exception in Rule 803 of the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Blackburn Court found the victim's statement given to police approximately one hour after the event would qualify as an excited utterance and be admissible under [that] exception. [7] The record indicates that there could have been no more than one hour between the attack on Victim and Victim's Wife and Victim's statement to the testifying police officer. While [t]here are no hard and fast rules as to when the res gestae ends, State v. Harrison, 298 S.C. 333, 336, 380 S.E.2d 818, 820 (1989), this Court has generally allowed as excited utterances statements made by the victim to the police immediately following a physical attack. See State v. Sims, 304 S.C. 409, 405 S.E.2d 377 (1991) (allowing statements made to police under res gestae exception where the officer had proceeded directly to the scene attack upon it being reported); State v. Harrison, 298 S.C. 333, 380 S.E.2d 818 (1989) (allowing as res gestae the statements of an alleged rape victim to an officer at the hospital upon first opportunity to tell what had occurred to her); State v. Blackburn, 271 S.C. 324, 247 S.E.2d 334 (1978) (noting that a time interval of over one hour, and up to eleven hours, did not necessarily eliminate a statement as part of the res gestae); State v. Quillien, 263 S.C. 87, 207 S.E.2d 814 (1974) (concluding a rape victim's statements to police when she arrived at the emergency room were admissible under the res gestae exception); State v. Dennis, 321 S.C. 413, 468 S.E.2d 674 (Ct.App.1996) (allowing statements made to the police and nurse where the record indicated there was no appreciable time lapse between the attack and the statements); see also State v. Burroughs, 328 S.C. 489, 492 S.E.2d 408 (Ct.App.1997) (excluding statements made to the investigating officer and a nurse where the statements were made approximately ten hours after the incident and victim expressly acknowledged she had time to reflect upon the events). Whether a statement is admissible under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule depends on the circumstances of each case and the determination is generally left to the sound discretion of the trial court. See State v. Harrison, 298 S.C. 333, 380 S.E.2d 818 (1989). In the current case, Victim and his wife had recently suffered a physical attack and his statement to the police fell within the time frame previously allowed in the case law. We agree with the trial court's conclusion that Victim's statement qualified as an excited utterance.
Defendant argues that even if the statement qualifies as an exception to the hearsay prohibition, it was still impermissible because the testimony violated the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution. We disagree. Defendant is correct that the hearsay exceptions and the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution are not identical in their application. See Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 100 S.Ct. 2531, 65 L.Ed.2d 597 (1980); State v. Hutto, 325 S.C. 221, 226 n. 7, 481 S.E.2d 432, 434 n. 7 (1997). Hearsay statements are admissible under the Confrontation Clause where the statement bears adequate indicia of reliability. Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 813, 110 S.Ct. 3139, 3145, 111 L.Ed.2d 638, 651 (1990). Such reliability can be inferred without more in a case where the evidence falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception. Id. at 814-16, 110 S.Ct. at 3146-47, 111 L.Ed.2d at 652-53. The admissibility of Victim's statement to the police depends on whether his statements, as excited utterances, bear adequate indicia of reliability. The United States Supreme Court has held that the excited utterance exception is a firmly rooted hearsay exception. See White v. Illinois, 502 U.S. 346, 355 n. 8, 112 S.Ct. 736, 742 n. 8, 116 L.Ed.2d 848 (1992) (The exception for spontaneous declarations is at least two centuries old, and may date to the late 17th century.). The concept of res gestae has been an exception to the hearsay prohibition in South Carolina for over 100 years. See State v. Talbert, 41 S.C. 526, 19 S.E. 852 (1894) (allowing hearsay statements made by deceased immediately after he had been shot). Defendant argues that Rule 803, SCRE dividing up the res gestae exception in 1995 into two distinct exceptions undermined its status as firmly rooted in South Carolina law. Defendant believes that since the excited utterance exception has stood on its own for only a few years, that it does not bear the indicia of reliability necessary to satisfy the Confrontation Clause. We disagree. The reason excited utterances are allowed as an exception to the hearsay prohibition is that they bear the indicia of reliability required by the second element of the Confrontation Clause analysis. See State v. Hill, 331 S.C. 94, 501 S.E.2d 122 (1998) (The rationale behind the excited utterance exception is that the startling event suspends the declarant's process of reflective thought, thus reducing the likelihood of fabrication.). Excited utterances would therefore have the indicia of reliability no matter how long that exception has stood on its own in South Carolina. Defendant offers no argument against the philosophy or theoretical basis of the exception, only that it has not had enough time on its own to become firmly rooted. We disagree and find that the excited utterance exception is firmly rooted in South Carolina law and satisfies the requirements of the Confrontation Clause.