Vanderbilt%20University%20Honors%20182:%20Neuroethics

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Vanderbilt University Honors 182 Neuroethics
I Cannot Tell a Lie The Biological Basis of the
Excited Utterance Exception to the Hearsay Rule
Michael VandenberghDavid Chooljian Vanderbilt
University School of LawApril 6, 2006
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Key Questions

• What is the hearsay rule?
• What is the excited utterance
• exception?
• Why do we have these rules?
• Does our understanding of the
• brain provide support for the
• excited utterance exception?
• Does it suggest modifications to
• the excited utterance exception?
• Can law help frame questions for
• biological research?

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The Hearsay Problem

• The Problem Reliability of
• Testimony
• The Legal Solution Cross-
• Examination
• The Next Problem Hearsay
• Cross Examination Witness v.
• Declarant

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The Hearsay Rule

• Federal Rules of Evidence 801, 802
• Out of court statement
• By someone other than the witness
• Offered for the truth of the
• proposition
• Example that has been on the
• floor several hours

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The Excited Utterance Exception

• Federal Rule of Evidence 803(2)
• Utterance admissible
• If declarant experiences a
• startling event or condition and
• If declarant makes a statement
• while under the stress of
• excitement caused by the
• condition

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The Excited Utterance Exception

• Unavailability of the declarant not required.
• Tesimony that declarant was distraught and that
  there was a basis for the distress often
  sufficient to establish that the statement was
  made in a state of excitement.

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The Excited Utterance Exception

• Courts vary on the length of the temporal gap
  that may occur between the event and the
  statement (duration of the state of
  excitement).
• Declarants increased trustworthiness is a
  surrogate for cross-examination.
• Wigmore on Evidence 1747 (1904) a condition
  of excitement which temporarily stills the
  capacity of reflection and produces utterances
  free of conscious fabrication.

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The Neurophysiology of Excited Utterances Key
Questions

• Is it physically impossible to lie when making
  an excited utterance?
• If not impossible, is it more difficult?
• Any utterance or only wordless exclamations?
• What is the maximum time interval?
• What is the necessary extent of excitement?
• Do certain events still the mind more than
  others?

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The Neurophysiology of Excited Utterances
Overview
ACG
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Implications, Part I

• Is it physically impossible to lie when making an
  excited utterance?
• Any utterance or only
• wordless exclamations?
• What is the maximum time
• interval?
• What is the necessary extent of
• excitement?

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Implications, Part II

• Broader Questions
• Does biological research offer insights for other
  rules of evidence (e.g., exception for present
  sense impressions)?
• When can law frame questions for biological
  research?
• When can the results of biological research
  influence legal doctrines?
• Should law reflect the product of biological
  research?

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