Hearsay Exceptions
When you are on the prosecution, one of your witnesses elicits a statement from the defendant during direct examination.
What is the party opponent exception?
An examination composed of leading questions
What is a cross examination?
In a burglary case, an attorney asks a witness to describe the cake he had for his 6th birthday.
What is relevance?
In a medical malpractice case, a witness gets on the stand and says that they told the doctor, "I have a sharp pain on the right side of my body, a fever, and I keep vomiting." (Hearsay exception)
What is a statement made for medical diagnosis or treatment?
An attorney asks a leading question on direct examination.
What is objecting to a leading question?
A witness comes onto the stand and testifies that when he showed his friend an embarrassing picture that he took, the friend screamed "OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO KILL YOU"
What is an excited utterance?
An examination made up of open-ended questions
What is direct examination?
A dolphin trainer begins to testify about fingerprint matching, and how the defendant's fingerprints couldn't have matched the fingerprints found at the scene.
What is a lack of personal knowledge?
What is a present sense impression?
An expert witness gets on the stand. Before talking about any of his training, knowledge, or expertise, the expert talks about the drugs found in the victim's system and how his lab determined that there were traces of rohypnol, the date rape drug.
What is objection to 702, improper foundation?
In a love-triangle-gone-wrong murder case, a witness testifies that he once heard the defendant say "I'm going to run away with my mistress. We're going to live in Peru away from her husband."
What is then-existing mental, emotional, or physical condition?
A statement previewing what will happen throughout the trial
What is an opening statement?
In a shooting case, a witness gets on the stand and testifies that the defendant used to point guns at people frequently when she was younger. The prosecution did not give the defense prior notice that this testimony would come out during trial.
What is improper character evidence?
After testifying that the plaintiff was crying and that their face was red, the witness then testifies that the plaintiff was sad. (Exception to speculation)
What is rationally based perception?
On direct examination, the judge declares the prosecution's witness a hostile witness. The prosecutor then begins asking leading questions on direct.
What is no objection because leading questions can be asked to hostile witnesses on direct examination?
An attorney enters a hospital's discharge record during the cross examination of the administrative head of that hospital.
What is a record of regularly conducted activity?
A statement connecting the facts of the case and arguing why those facts support a certain verdict
What is a closing argument?
An attorney enters a 3-page long piece of evidence and asks the witness to read the document in its entirety.
What is needlessly cumulative?
The plaintiff, during direct examination, states that the defense's star witness got in trouble at least once a month in high school for lying to his teachers. (Exception to improper character evidence)
What is character for truthfulness or untruthfulness?
In a court case where a student hit and killed another student while texting and driving in the school parking lot, the defense attorney asks the school principal on direct examination, "What percentage of students throughout the United States text and drive in school parking lots?"
What is an objection to lack of personal knowledge?
On cross examination, the friend of the plaintiff says that she had never drank before. The defense attorney then asks, "But you told your friend, the plaintiff, that you had 5 vodka Red Bulls at your 21st birthday party, isn't that correct?"
What is a prior inconsistent statement?
An out of court statement being offered for the truth of the matter asserted
What is hearsay?
A witness testifies that the defendant was upset without any additional explanation.
What is speculation?
In a criminal trial, the defense provides notice that the defendant will be talking about her generous acts in the past in order to help prove that she did not embezzle money from a non-profit. On the stand, the defendant talks about all of the charity work she's done in the past 5 years.
What is an exception for a pertinent trait of the defendant in a criminal trial?
In a case about scuba diving, a witness, the dive instructor, says "I gave the plaintiff the thumbs up to indicate that they could swim to the surface."
What is yes, object to hearsay because hand symbols can still indicate statements?