State v. Bass

¶ 50 I would affirm the trial court’s ruling that the statements at issue fall within the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule. The majority believes that “the scene [of the accident] was not the basis for these excited utterances because, though the bystanders viewed the wreckage, their statements did not relate to it.” Ante, at ¶23. The central issue in this case is the relationship between the defendant’s speed and the accident. It is inconsistent to say that this relationship can form the basis of criminal charges but that the speed which caused the accident did not “relate to”…