About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

85 Calif. L. Rev. 159 (1997)
My God: A Feminist Critique of the Excited Utterance Exception to the Hearsay Rule

handle is hein.journals/calr85 and id is 177 raw text is: MY GOD!: A Feminist Critique of the Excited Utterance Exception to the Hearsay Rulet Aviva Orensteint TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ..................................................................................... 162 I. The Traditional Definition and Defense of the Hearsay Rule .............................................................................. 165 II. The Excited Utterance Exception: Nervous Agitation as a Guaranty of Spontaneity, Sincerity, and Reliability ..................... 168 A. A History of the Doctrine ..................................................... 168 B. The Current Doctrine ............................................................ 173 C. The Psychological Critique of the Excited Utterance Doctrine ................................................................ 178 III. A Feminist Perspective ................................................................ 183 A. Difference, Dominance, and Evidentiary Objectivity ............. 183 B. He Said, She Said-Toward a Feminist Critique of the Hearsay Rule .............................................................. 191 C. Considering the Rights of Criminal Defendants ..................... 195 Copyright © 1997 Aviva Orenstein. Please do not quote or cite without the author's permission. t Professor Irving Younger deridingly defined an excited utterance: If it begins with the words 'My God!' then it is an excited utterance. IRVING YOUNGER, HEARSAY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE THROUGH THE THICKET 144 (1988). t Associate Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington. J.D. 1986, Cornell Law School. I am grateful for the summer research support from the Indiana University School of Law and for the comments I received in faculty workshops at Cornell Law School and Indiana University School of Law. I also wish to thank my dear friends and colleagues for their enormous help and support. My appreciation goes to Judge Edward R. Becker, and Professors Naomi Cahn, Fred H. Cate, Kevin Clermont, Judy Cornett, Cathy Crosson, Roger Dworkin, Bruce Markell, Nancy Moore, Jeffery Rachlinski, Myma Raeder, Lauren Robel, Eleanor Swift, Alex Tanford, and Andrew Taszlitz for their encouragement and helpful comments on early drafts. Thanks also to Christine Zonkel for her patience in expertly typing multiple drafts, to Jennifer Mathews for her excellent work editing this piece for the California Law Review, and special thanks to David Greenberg, my best in-house editor. In particular, I wish to express my deep gratitude to Rabbi Debra Orenstein and Professors Kathryn Abrams, Lynne Henderson, and Susan Williams, whose intellectual generosity and critical engagement through multiple drafts improved this Article immeasurably. Obviously, any mistakes are entirely my own, owing, no doubt, to my failure to follow their good counsel.

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most