Court Opinion

ID: 9582257
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:24:14.759548+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:34.814693
License: Public Domain

ROSE, Justice,
joining in the dissent of BROWN, Justice, with the following reservations.
I join in the dissenting opinion of Justice Brown because I believe that it properly analyzes the law with respect to the admissibility of out-of-court declarations pursuant to Rule 803(4), W.R.E. I disagree, however, with the suggestion that the “excited utterance” exception, Rule 803(2), W.R.E., could be expanded to cover this case. As Justice Brown points out, the record does not support a conclusion that the child was in a state of excitement at the time that she made the statements. Therefore, the application of Rule 803(2) would require unacceptable distortion of the rule’s requirements.
In addition, I see no reason to expand the existing exceptions to the hearsay rule. Rule 803(24), W.R.E., the catch-all exception, is sufficiently comprehensive to allow into evidence trustworthy, out-of-court statements, so long as all of the safeguards of that rule are met.